Nick Broda's last option
by WCTsummer
Summary: Nick is forced to enroll at Hogwarts in his third year. After speaking parseltongue his whole life, Nick feels rather unprepared for an English only, Parselmouths-are-the-route-off-all-evil school. Lucky for him, firsty Luna Lovegood is there to talk to and the twins pull Nick into one prank after another. Nick's presents will change the plot, but not as directly as the usual ff.OC
1. Chapter 1

_"It's not like we have a whole lot of options at this point"_ Alex pointed out. He picked up the near empty bottle of wine and passed it to his traveling companion.

Nicholas glared at the bottle.

_"Look I'm not saying it's going to be a forever type deal, but you've exhausted all the other options."_

_"Australia…"_ Nick stared, but was cut off by the wine bottle being chucked at his head. _"Right, need citizenship, forgot. Surely Canada doesn't have the best relationship between Muggles and Magics. There must be schools in Canada that won't require Canadian citizenship."_

_"Yes, there are three options. The school on Salt Spring Island, BC…"_

_"No"_ Nick huffed. The very thought of attending the hippy-dipppy school offended every fiber of his being.

Alex snorted. _"Right well, there is also the school in the Alberta, BC border. Might I remind you that it's a survival of the fittest type of school though."_ Nick visibly winced. _"I'll take that as a no then. That leaves The Healer's school in Toronto, but since you've never once shown an interest in healing I can assume that's not an option."_

Nick sat staring at his fingers drum on his knees. _"There are schools in Japan that I would qualify for."_ An empty wine glass whizzed passed Nick and smash against the wall of the shack the two sat in. _"Right I only really speak English and Parseltongue."_

_"Really only parseltongue. You sound daft when you speak english."_

Nick flailed his arms up into the air,_ "That's what I'm saying. How the hell do you expect me to get good grade in an all English school? Last I check the only Parseltongue left in Europe was a crazy mass murder. I doubt he'll be will to help explain my homework to me. Plus all the spells will be in Latin. I don't even speak English. Latin?! Latin spells!"_

_"Sit Down"_ Alex wrenched Nick back down to the weathered down couch. _"Look Drumstead is fairly Dark-arts friendly…."_

_"Parseltongue is a language. Not blood dark magic"_

_"The Europeans don't tend to agree. One of Hogwarts founders was a parseltongue, there is a chance they will know of underground parseltongue communities that we simply don't know of because of the wing-nut dark lord. I really think this is your best option."_

Nick grabbed his empty wine glass and tossed it at the far wall just to watch is shadder. _"Mend"_ he commanded. The glass reformed and lay on its side on the ground.

_"Look I know you'd rather stay with myself and the others, but that isn't an option anymore. You know that. Once you've been trained a bit more, then obviously you can continue traveling with us, but after last week…"_

_"that was an accident. How am I suppose to know what those damn Runes meant?"_ Nick huffed.

Alex pulled his hand through his hair. _"Child, I'm not arguing the point. As the hunt gets more challenging we'll end up facing great risks. You simply don't know enough to survive most of these….adventures. During the summer you'll join us again to search, but for the most part we need you to focus on your studies..."_

_"I am focused!"_

_"In a safe place"_ Alex continued with a pointed glare at Nick for the interruption. Nick sighed dramatically and flopped back into the couch. _"At this point your options are Drumstead of Hogwarts, but one of them will be getting a letter requesting transfer by the end of the night so which is it?"_

_"Might as well be Hogwarts, maybe they'll at least have a few books I can understand. Screw me now, English for eight months of the year. I can barely managed five minutes in English."_ Nick covered his face with his hands.

Alex patted the boy's arm in a half hearted attempt at reassuring and pulled parchment and a quill out to write a note to the head of Hogwarts, Professor Dumbledore.

…..

"Speak English" Alex warned as he gripped Nick's arm and apperated the pair to the gate of Hogwarts.

An old man with a white beard and twinkling blue eyes waited with hands clasped in front at the waist. "Well, you must be Mr. Broda" The elderly man smiled gently at Nick at turned to Alex. The man didn't sneer exactly but the greeting towards Alex was clearly not as friendly, "Mr. Legaunt I assume".

"It is a pleasure," Alex gave a slight bow and turned to Nick. He didn't say anything, simply raised a single eyebrow.

Nick wanted to say he'd be fine and he didn't need the old leach hovering, but he really don't know that many words in English so he settled for a haughty sneer instead.

"If you have any problems, contact be immediately. If you are, in fact, willing to take Mr Borda in as a student, please contact me and I will send over his luggage." With a final glare at Nick and a simple bow to Dumbledore, Alex vanished in a puff of smoke.

"Well then, shall we?" the old man motioned towards the imposing castle at the top of the hill.

Nick bit back a sigh of frustration as he found he simply didn't know enough English to say more than yes or no. Nick would have rathered they flew up the hill, but without a reasonable grasp of the language, the boy found himself awkwardly trailing the old man up to the castle.

Dumbledore, dutifully explained the many wonders and mysteries of the castle, most of which Nick hadn't the faintest idea what he was talk about.

He was lead through double wooden doors to what looked to be a rather large and intimidating eating hall. He was then lead to a staircase that moved.

Dumbledore chucked at Nick's surprised. "Impressive bit of magic, isn't it?" Nick merely nodded along, not really sure what impressive meant, but figuring he could guess. "One must be carefully though, these steps do not always lead where you would hope". Nick nodded slowly. He caught Dumbledore's eye for a moment, and couldn't help but see glint of understanding in the old man's eyes. "Caution," Dumbledore motion towards the steps and motioned as if to say 'vanish'. "Watch your step".

Nick smiled slightly. The tour continued with far more gestures and simpler words and Alex quickly found himself starting to pick up the meaning of different words. When they eventually came to stand in a near-empty classroom. A small man stood on a pile of books at the front of the classroom. He grinned and clapped his hands together excitedly. "Let's see what you know, yes?" the man said excitedly. A women dressed in dark green robs and a straight back stood to the left of the man, with a plump women to the right. A man dressed all in black with what appeared to be an ever present snear stood to the left of the serious women in green.

"Lockhart has yet to grace us with his presents" the man in black sneered.

Dumbledore nodded thoughtfully. "Nevertheless, we must care on. Shall we?" Dumbledore motioned for Nick to step forward. A feather was placed on the desk in front of Nick. "let's start with a levitation charm"

Nick watched Dumbledore motion for what he was looking for. Nick longed to simply command the feather to float up gradually, but he couldn't without using Parselmagic.

The little man on the stack of books smiled encouragingly and motioned for Nick to give it a try. Nick simply looked between the small man and the feather. The wizard took out his wand and pointed it at feather. "Wingardium Leviosa" the man said and watched as the feather floated up perfectly. The charm was released and everyone turned to Nick expectedly.

Nick pulled his wand out and looked at it strangely. He'd never been taught magic with a wand, but he's have to use it here. He pointed it feather and gave it his best shot, "Wingardium Leviosa". The feather floated up gradually and a bit shakily but it did go up. The wizard on the books clapped excitedly, "Excellent, excellent very well done"

The rest of the testing period went much the same way. With one of the professors offering a demonstration and Nick doing his best to copy them. That was until they came to potions. The sneering overgrown bat, gave Nick parchment with a potion explained and motioned towards the ingredient and cauldron all neatly laid out. Nick looked at the parchment and back at the bat, but was meet only with a sneer, "I haven't all day Mr. Broda."

Nick looked over the ingredients and tried to guess what the man wanted him to make, but he honestly didn't have a clue. Nothing came to mind when he looked the ingredient. He counted the words that looked like ingredient names on the parchment and counted the available ingredients and found there were far more ingredients than he probably needed. Nick shrugged and simply started cutting and dicing ingredients hoping something would come to mind as he went. Part way in, Nick found himself making a Babbling Beverage, he smirked at the cauldron as he gave it a last counter-clockwise turn and removed it from heat to bottle and label.

"That is not the potion clearly written out for you Mr. Broda." The potion master drawled. "Do you think you are clever?" Nick said nothing as he glared at the overgrown bat. "well?" The man raised an eyebrow at Nick. Nick wasn't even sure what the mas was saying, much less how to respond, so he simply glared back at man. "Dumbledore, I am sure you know where I stand. I already risk enough with Mr. Longbottoms in my class."

The lady in green glared at the overgrown bat, but she largely went unnoticed.

Dumbledore, motioned towards the door to the hall. "I will need a moment with the other professors."

Nick nodded and head for the hall. Not five minutes later, a beaming Dumbledore came out of the office. "You'll be happy to know that Hogwarts will be happy to take you. Now there is just a matter of what house you'll be in then we can get you settled in."

Nick followed Dumbledore through the twist and turns of the halls until they came to a gargoyle which looked suspiciously similar to the gargoyle that guards Alexander Legaunts room in Alex's family house.

"Exploding Snaps" The gargoyle moved to the side and a spiral staircase was revealed. Nick soon found himself sitting across from Dumbledore having a staring contest with a phoenix and a tatter hat being plopped unceremoniously on his head.

A Slytherin to the core, how very interesting. I had thought Tom would have been the last of you

Tom? Nick hissed. To his great frustration, Nick found that the hat could not understand him. The Phenix in front of him seemed to glare suspiciously, Nick sneered back and tried to concentrate on creating images in him mind that would convey his meaning. He found the hat returning in kind. Tom, was evidently the crazy mass murder from Europe. Nick pictured a sea of stars between himself and the crazy psychopath.

The Hat chuckled and proceed to show a green crest with a silver serpent on it. Men following weather and power followed. Nick thought on the images. He was rather ambitious, but he was only here to learn, his ambitions would come later. James thought of the pile of books the professor had been standing on earlier. A picture of a black Raven on a blue crest appeared. Nick nodded at the image. If there was a house for studying that was what he wanted.

"Ravenclaw" The hat shotted, which Nick had not been expecting in the least. He gripped the chair in surprise and the damn flaming turkey had the audacity to laugh at him for it. The Phenix looked fondly at Nick, but was ignored.

"How wonderful. Knowledge is a wonderful thing. I myself have been know to get lost for days in a good book. Lemondrop?" A little yellow candy shaped like a lemon was offered. Nick gave a slight smile and accepted one. It was not at all what he was expecting really. It was as sour as a full lemon with a sudden kick of sweetness at the end, like he's just shoved a spoonful of honey in his mouth to try and get away from the sour.

'Not to self' Nick thought 'avoid barmy old man's candies'.

"Shall we get you moved in then?"

Nick was lead though the twist and turns of the halls until they came to a door with a bronze eagle-shaped knocker. The beak of the door knocker opened and it said, "He who builds me doesn't want me, he who buys me doesn't use me, he that uses me doesn't know he's got me. What am I?"

Dumbledore turned to Nick and appeared to be waiting patiently. Nick started the tedious task of translating. 'Coffin?" he finally thought, but he wasn't sure what the word was. On a whim, he grabbed the door knocker and simply pulled the picture of a coffin to the front of his mind, the door swung open.

"Most curious" Dumbledore murmured as the two walked up the stone steps to the grand looking common room.

The Ravenclaw common room had graceful arched windows, and the walls are hung with blue and bronze silks. The domed ceiling was painted with stars, which were echoed in the midnight-blue carpet. Tables, chairs, and bookcases cover the expanse of the floor, and a white-marble statue of Rowena Ravenclaw sat next to the door that lead to the dormitories above.

"The other students will arrive in a few days time. For now, I you will have a chance to explore the castle. Meals are in the great hall. If you have questions, please don't hesitate to come to myself or one of the other professors."

"Goodnight" Nick waved as the old man swept down the spiral stairs back to the halls. Nick found his way into the third year boys dorm and plopped down onto one of the beds. There were three other beds in the door room. Much to Nick's surprise, his belongings were already sitting at the end of his bed.

"So that's it?" Nick asked the room, "No more adventure. The next eight months I have to hit the books and study like a good boy."

No one answered the question but several textbooks and a English to Parseltongue Dictionary sat innocently at the end of Nick's bed. Nick grabbed the first one off the pile, pulled out a quill and parchment and got to reading. He made notes as he went and wrote translations above words he didn't know.

When the morning finally came, Nick grabbed his translation dictionary, parchment and a quill and went in search of some breakfast before he hunted down the library. The great hall was empty so nick simply found a place to sit and eat on his own. He wasn't sure which of the long tables were for which houses, so he simply picked a middle table and a seat close to the doors.

Nick found the library by lunch time and opted to miss the afternoon meal in favor of looking through the vast number of books. There were, much to Nick's disappointment, no books in parseltongue though he found a few in German, French and several languages he didn't recognize.

At the evening meal most of the professors were present and Nick was introduced to everyone. He found himself disliking Professor Snape as much as he originally had. The rest of the professors seemed nice enough. Professor Filius Flitwick was just as enthusiastic as before and Nick found it contagious. He found himself attentively listening to the stories of the wizards days as a duelist even though he didn't understand most of what was being said. Professor Lockhart was incredibly annoying. At first he hadn't seemed so bad, but by the end of the meal Nick found that any tale that Professor Flitwick told, Professor Lockhart found the need to out do. Telling near-identical tales with only slightly more dangerous and impressive feats.

A week went by much the same way that the first day had, even in that short time Nick found himself learning more words and understanding more of what his professor said.

By the time the week came it an end, Nick found himself mourning the inevitable loss of silence and solitude as students poured in for the evening meal. Nick sat himself at the table under the Ravenclaw banner and waited for the festivities to begin. Three boys sat around him. "Marcus Belby" one of the boys said. "This is Eddie Carmichael and Hugo Mattingley. You're a third year too right?" Nick nodded slowly, not really sure how much he want to get into a conversation with the strangers being as they were bound to ask questions he would know how to answer, well in English anyways.

"Belby?" Nick asked, suddenly struck with the familiar last name. "Damocles Bemby?"

Marcus flushed a little and groaned, "Look I don't really talk to my Uncle much. Him and my dad don't really get on. I don't know anything about him."

Nick grinned knowingly. Damcoles Bemby was a brilliant, sarcastic, stuck up prick. A a member of the wizarding world, Nick appreciate his work on creating the Wolfbane Potion but as an individual Nick hated spending any amount of time with the man. Particularly since he didn't speak enough English to understand what the potion master had been trying to tell him when Nick and Alex had been working in the Greater Communal Potion Labs in Switzerland.

"You've meet Uncle Damcoles?" Marcus asked in assessment.

"Once" Nick answered.

Marcus laughed, "More than I can say to be honest. I've heard loads though. Where you from anyways?"

Nick blinked. "Canada".

"They speak English there too don't they?" Eddie teased. Nick grinned and shrugged.

Hugo gave Eddie a shove, "You ever study history? I know you're a pure blood and all but really"

The boys bantered and bickered on. Nick smiled and nodded most of the time but didn't contribute much to the discussion. Suddenly the doors opened and the hall camed to a hushed silence. Professor Mcgonagall walked in with a trail of first years following behind her.

They were called one by one up to a three legged wooden stool where the sorting hat was placed on their heads and a house was called out, much the same way it was for Nick. A girl names Luna Lovegood was sorted into Ravenclaw and she ended up sitting to the left of Nick, beside a handful of other firsties.

After the Headmaster gave a little speech the food was called and dinner began. Nick was somewhat warmed to see that the rest of the Ravenclaws clearly understood very little of what Dumbledore said either, so it wasn't just a language barrier thing.

As Nick served himself some food he felt a finger poke his wrist. "You know that crushed Dreamsworth heals the burn of a Heliopath?" Luna said airly. Nick looked down at the ugly burn mark on his wrist. It was hard enough finding a Heliopath, how on earth would he ever find Dreamsworth. "I have some if you like?" Luna offered. Nick smiled and gave a slight nodded.

"Heliopath" one of the girls sitting across from Luna tisked, "don't really exist." Nick looked at the girl with ill-hidden shock. "I've never read about them." The girl said, as if this was the most convincing argument.

Nick nodded to Luna as if to say, 'please explain'.

The brilliant little firstie caught on, "Heliopath: a spirit of fire which gallops and burns anything in its path".

"s'like s'orse" Nick offered. His voice was silky and smooth but the words still came out more like hisses then proper English words. Nick pulled out his wand and draw a picture of a Heliopath in the air, with a final swish of his want he animated it so the horse type create galoped around the table leaving burning trails everywhere it went.

"They're very hard to find. Did you catch it?" Luna asked. The other Ravenclaws still looked rather skeptically at the creature trampling through the air. Nick shook his head. "That's alright. I'm sure you'll find one again. Though I can't imagine why you'd be in the desert. That's where they live you know" Luna said.

Professor Flitwick handed Nick his class schedule and clapped him on the shoulder. "What wonderful charm work. Very well done"

Nick nodded to the professor and began looking over his schedule.

"Where's Potter?" Huge asked Marcus.

Marcus shrugged, "Didn't even notice he wasn't here."

"Heard he wasn't on the train" Eddie pipped up. "Reckon he's not coming at all this year?"

"Na, boy-who-lives, he'll be here." Marcus said matter of factly.

"Potter?" Nick asked.

"Harry Potter, Boy-Who-Lived. He defeated the dark lord when he was only one. Some say he'll save the whole wizarding world again some day. He's in Gryffindor. Figure he would be really, being the saviour and all" Huge explained. Marcus and Eddie nodded in agreement.

Nick didn't say anything. He wasn't sure how much faith he should place on an education who still believed in saviors. There was a Savior in the America a few years back and that hadn't ended very well at all. The poor boy had died in a drunk flying accident. He'd be told his whole life he'd live to defeat the uprising of vampires so he's, rather illogically, figured he could live through anything until his work was done. Nick wasn't willing to put stock into saviors, if there was saving to do he'd rather do it himself.

Nick had wanted to go to the library after dinner but found himself being herded up to the dormitory and to bed. As promised, Luna gave Nick some Dreamsworth. Nick crushed it into a paste and spread it over his burn, watching in fascination as it healed. He pulled his shirt off and sat on his bed applying the paste to the large burn over his chest.

Hugo looked at Nick in shock, "What on earth do you do in Canada?"

Nick shrugged, pointed to the slowly disappearing burn mark "Heliopath, Egypt." He pointed to the scar underneath the burn mark, "Dargon, Canada". A faded line on his shoulder, "Merpeople, Italy" Nick pointed to the claw marks that ran across his back, "Drop Bear, Australia".

"Drop Bear?" Huge asked.

"s'magical 'oalas, s'et s'meat" The boys looked at Nick strangely. Nick sighed and pulled out his wand to draw the picture of the carnouvouse koala.

Nick canceled the charm and waved goodnight to the others before drawing the blue and bronze curtains around his bed and pulling out his text books to read over the first chapter each of his classes the next day.

The first weekend Nick had, he spent in an empty classroom brew potions. He started with a Calming Draught since he always found them helpful, but then he already had his things out and Fire Protection Potion wasn't very hard to make. Really Luna burnt herself farm more than she should, and since she had given him Dreamsworth he should really give her something in return. But Fire Protection Potion take twenty minutes to simmer on low heat with absolute no stirs, and what was Nick to do, just stare at the cauldron. Then he figure he might as well do something fun like Hair-Raising Potion or Laugh-inducing Potion. Actually why not make both. Then again they weren't very challenging, so Nick figure he should make Invisibility Potion too, which took a lot more time and patience. Really he was just avoiding working on his English, but making potions was a productive procrastination so it was ok right.

It was nearly dinner time when two fourth year gryffindors popped up right in front of Nick's cauldron. "What do we have here George?"

"Looks like Snape to me Fred"

"Can't be George, he's much too small."

One of the twins made to grab a bottle of the hair raising potion but Nick nipped it first.

"We just wanted to look" the twins sang in chorus.

Nick signed and handed the potion over.

"What you reckon it does George?"

"Not a clue Fred"

The two looked at Nick expectantly. "''elp me s'udy" Nick said offhandedly. The twins lit up. George took the top off and took a swig and handed it to Fred. The two emptied the bottle. Nick looked up just in time to see the surprise in the face of the twins as they saw each others hair stand straight on end.

"Never thought a bookworm Ravenclaw…"

"Had it in him to pull a prank."

Nick smiled. "I s'o not s'ank. Sell 'otions..." Nick shrugged.

"Hear that Fred, we have ourselves our own little potion master." George grinned. "how much?". Nick looked at the collection of potions in front of himself.

"invisible" Nick pointed to the three vials of clear options. " 'each me 'ow 'o 'alk"

"Just speaking lessons George, you hear that. All the pranking material we want just to teach dear old mini-snape here to talk like us"

"Fred I do believe this is a deal we simply can't pass up on. What'da'ya say to some lessons tonight for two of those invisibility potions?"

Nick nodded and shook hands with the twins. That evening, Nick sat outside with the twins going over different words. They set out a schedule to meet on Wednesdays and Sundays for lessons. Nick would spend Saturday brewing potions that the Weasley twins requested. The twins gave him a list of the potions they wanted off the top of their heads and showed him how to send an order by post to the Slug and Jiggers Apothecary in Diagon Alley.

On Sunday morning, Grant Page a fourth year Ravenclaw boy pulled Nick out of one of the chair in the common room and handed him a handed him a Comet 290 broomstick. "We need a Chaser" Grant grunted.

Nick gave the broom one look and handed it back.

"Play and I'll let you read my copy of "Hogwarts: a history". Its Seventh edition, first print."

Nick glared at the offending broom. He really didn't want to play Quidditch but if he wanted to find other parseltongues, one of the original "Hogwarts: a history" would certainly be a good place to start. Nick nodded and motioned for Grant to wait. Nick went up to his dorm and grabbed his broom from his belongings. Grant looked at the broom curiously but said nothing. Nick was lead down to the quidditch pitch. He watch the other play for a bit, listened to Roger Davies, the team Captain talk about strategy. Nick was surprised he understood most of what Roger was saying. The practice went well, though it wasn't anything spectacular. The first game would be in several weeks, so there was lots of time to improve. Honestly though, Nick figured most people had been forced on the team. Roger Davis seemed to be the only one taking it seriously.

As promised, Nike got to spend the following week pouring over Grant Page's copy of "Hogwarts: A History".

After Nick second quidditch practice, he gave back Gaunts books and settled into working on the homework he had neglected.

Luna and Nick sat curled up on opposite ends of one of the common room couches reading and working on homework. "Nike, do you ever listen to the walls?" Luna suddenly asked.

Nick frowned down at his Charms homework. "I can't say I ever 'ave. Mos'ly I just read be'ween classes". There was silence for a moment and Nick thought Luna might explain. "Luna, why 'o you ask?"

Lune grinned and pulled on the tiny grapefruit hanging from her collar. "I saw Harry listening to the walls today. Very strange. I thought you might have heard something I didn't"

Nick smiled at the strange girl across from him. There really was not respond to something like that so he simply nodded and turned back to his work.

It was part way into October when Nick found himself watching post fly in at breakfast that he realised how long he'd been away from his family. He wasn't normally one to get homesick, but watching all the letter be delivered to other students made him wish he got letters.

The next day at breakfast, a large brown owl drop a letter off for Nick. The scrawl was messy and hard to read. He opened up the letter and found a letter describing the many ways to catch a Heliopath. Luna had signed her name at the bottom.

"Who's it from?" Eddie asked.

Huge tried to peer over his shoulder, but Nick leaned away. He meet Luna's eyes and grinned ear to ear.

"From a girl is it Bromda? Got a girl back in Canada?" Eddie asked.

Nick shook his head, "She is a very good friend and very kind and thoughtful."

"Thoughtful eh?" Eddie wiggled his eyes suggestively.

Nick scowled and threw a piece toast hitting Eddie square in the forehead. THe hour boys burst out laughing. Nick put the letter in his pocket and turned to his roommates to commiserate over Lockharts terrible teaching of defence against the dark arts.

The next day a letter was dropped at Luna's place. Normally the girls in her dorm ignored her, but suddenly they were all rather curious. Luna just smiled and put the letter in her pocket. It was the story of how Nick had come across the Heliopath the first time and what had happened. It had taken more time then Nick cared to admit to write. He still spent a lot of time trying to convert words.


	2. Chapter 2

_Parseltongue_

English

"Talking"

Speaking in the mind

Chapter 2

"Hey Little Bitty Nickie" George clap Nick on the back. Fred reach around the other side and nip the tarte off Nick's plate.

Nick tried to grab it back, but Fred popped it into his mouth in one go. George grabbed the pumpkin juice in front of Nick and drank the last of it.

"'on't you have your own?" Nick glared at the offending twins.

"About that," Fred sighed

"We got in a wee bit of trouble with Snape"

"We'll have to reschedule your lessons."

Nick frowned, and raised an eyebrow. The prank they had been planning was due until Friday, how on earth did they get detention before the prank?

Fred and George grinned knowingly "Marcus Flint" they chorused "Real prat he is".

Nick turned to Luna sitting beside him. She always seemed to know what needed to be explained.

Luna looked up from carving happy faces into an orange, "Marcus Flint in the Slytherin quidditch captain."

"I heard he called Hermione Granger a mudblood," Eddie said. Nick turned at his three roommates. "Must be in the name eh Marcus?". Eddie had to duck to avoid Marcus's book hitting upside the head.

Huge flicked a pea at Eddie, "You don't ever pay attention. It was Draco Malfoy who called her….that. Flint's just the prick caption"

Nick turned to the twins. They shrugged, "Draco's a little small to be hexing".

That really wasn't the explanation he was looking for, lucky for him Luna was still beside him. "As captain he really should have said something…"

"To right Luna" George said

"Did you know that Windigo's are afraid of oranges?"

"er, yeah sure." Fred took a step away from the first year and closer to the third years. "Anyways, we have to get to the dungeon before the greasy git gets impatient".

Luna watched the twins leave. Nick looked at the orange in her hand. There was perfectly round face draw into it, grinning ear from ear. He was a bit disappointed to see the smile on the orange and not the girl. Luna saw where he was looking and offered him the orange. Nick took it, placed it on the table, pick up Luna's wand and handed it back to her. All the while giving her a very pointed look. With his eyes alone he tried to say 'for the love of god women, if you ever meet a windigo do not simply throw orange at it. Use your damn wand!"

If Luna understood all that she didn't show it. She simply smiled at Nick and took back the orange and her wand. She shrunk the orange and hooked it on to a loose piece of hair.

"Loony Lovegood" one of the girls giggled. The rest of the first years seemed to catch on. "Lonny Lovegood, oh that's too perfect. Your such a dolt Luna really. I mean Windigo's, where did you read about them, the quibbler?"

"I wonder if there are any Windigo's in the forbidden forest?" Luna pondered out loud. The other first years roared with laughter at luna's expense.

Nick looked at Luna. He certainly hoped there were no windigo's around. He'd yet to run into one and he'd really like to keep in that way. The flesh eating monsters were perhaps worse than the Drop Bear.

"I'm going to the library. I heard there were Nargles in the astronomy section, you're welcome to come." Luna offered.

Nick shook his head and wave goodbye as the first year left dinner.

"How did a girl like her get into Ravenclaw? She should be in Hufflepuff. Why do you spend time with her anyways?" Marcus asked.

Nick couldn't help but wonder if there was in fact something about the name Marcus that brought out the worse in people. "She know a lot". Nick tried to explain. He debated drawing a picture of a windigo, but really who wanted to see that right after dinner? No one, that's who.

"She's so…. Luppy though" Eddie said.

Nick just shrugged and got up. He figured he'd head back to the dorms, but when the other boys got up after him, Nick opted to take a detour down to the dungeons. A few Slytherin noticed and glared at him. When Nick wasn't around anyone he hissed "_Invisible" _and disappeared from view. 

That particular spell was only really helpful if there weren't other parseltongues around. Which, as the semester dragged on, Nick was starting to think wasn't the case.

Nick case across a trio standing in the dungeon corridor. They were laughing cruelly at someone elses expense.

"That's right run away Mudblood," The center boy in the trio hollered to the back of a quickly retreating figure. "I don't see why that muggle-lover is allowed to run this school. The likes of those…" The boy sneered at the retreating figure, "should never be taught in a school like Hogwarts, if at all."

Nick glared at the pompous little slytherin. He recognized the middle figure as one of the members of the slytherin quidditch team. The blond haired kid was a seeker, not terribly good if the last game with gryffindor was anything to go by. Nick pointed to the middle boy's robes and hissed _"Turn Gold". _He pointed to the other to "_Turn Red_". The group yelped and glared suspiciously at each other. Nick grinned as he pointed to their robes against and hissed "_gryffindor pride". _Unless there really was a parseltongue in Slytherin, those robes were never going to be changed back.

The trio looked just about ready to kill each other. Nick slipped further down the halls before he got caught in the crossfire.

"_Where do you think you're going?" _a voice hissed. Nick world around and found him looked at a painting of a very intimidating man with with a long silver beard.

Nick blinked owlishly at the painting. He opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out.

"_Well?" _

Nick cleared his throat. "_Ah.. well.. you see sir… I was just looking.. trying to find actually… I was hoping… there were other parseltongues around" _The painting suddenly swung open to reveal a small circle library. Nick walked in and found the man in the painting had moved to a canvas over the fireplace.

"_Feel free to read" _ the man motioned to the books around the room then took a seat in the painting and took out a book of his own book.

Nick looked around the room and pulled out one of the first books he found. "_Parseltongue Patronus" _and sat down by the fire to read. There were two chairs in the little library, but they didn't really look sturdy enough to be used anymore.

The book was an interesting read and incredibly relaxing after having to struggle through so many english books. After reading about the Patronuses latin routes, he gave the spell a shot first in latin "Expecto Patronum" He tried to think of his happiest memory but every time he thought of one, an equally miserable one came to mind and the light would spatter to an end with nothing really happening. He tried to parseltongue but the only difference was a slightly greenish light coming to a sputtering end rather than a pale blue one.

"_You have to concentrate on your happiest memories" _The painting pointed out.

Nick flopped back onto the ground, _"I'm trying but it's harder than you make it sound." _The painting made a curious noise encouraging Nick to go on. _"Well most of my happiest moments have been in 'the eye of the storm' so to speak. They all have heavily affiliation with rather terrible memories. The first time I flew a broom for example, I was nine and I was trying to escape a rather angry dragon. The flying part was amazing but the fear of being eaten still gives me nightmares from time to time."_

"_Surely there have been holidays. Festive seasons that have gone unmarred" _The painting urged.

Nick frowned at the ceiling trying to think of something._ "There was a christmas when I was six…. No that's when Uncle Flagole betrayed us and tried to kill Alex. Hmmm when there was Halloween last year… ah no Amelia had a miscarriage. No I don't really think there has been anything."_

Nick sat up and sighed looking over at the "Parseltongue Patronum" book. He picked it up and rested it on the seat of one of the chairs. _"Well, I'll think on it and come back in a bit to work on it. I have defence against the dark arts with the puffs now and I dont want to be late" _

"_Come back anytime you desire. It has been a very long time since I have had anyone to speak with." _

Nick said his goodbyes and head out into the corridor. He passed a few slytherins heading towards their Herbology Class and whinnying about mandrakes.

He entered into the Defence Against the Dark Class and found a seat by Eddie.

"Now Student as you know I am Gilderoy Lockhart. I have earned the Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five times winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award. I am, dare I say, one of the most accomplished wizards to date. As such, I want you to know that absolutely no harm can come to you while in my classroom."

"_Why do I bother showing up?_" Nick hissed to himself.

"Nick" Eddie elbowed the boy gently and pointed towards Professor Lockhart, "You might want to pay attention, I heard he let a flock of cornish pixies on the Gryffindors and Slytherins when he gave this speech last. Best not to doze off now."

Nick was tempted to point out that Cornish Pixies won't really a reasonable reason to put off a perfectly deserved nap but he settled for writing nasty things about the self proclaimed "most accomplished wizard" in the margins of his paper in parshelscrip.

"Now, I have brought in some freshly roundup, pixies for you lot to work with. Try to get all of them back into the cage by the end of class. I'm just going to...wait over here… I'm watching thought…. Good luck" Professor Lockhart called as he fled the swarm of pixies into his office.

Most people tried to strike the pixies with immobulus charm but there really wasn't much effort to put the pixies back into the cage.

"I figure we let the little blighters stay out for the next class" Eddie said. Passing one of the immobile pixies to Huge who straightened the pixley and used it to create one of the towers in his frozen pixie Hogwarts replica.

Nick pointed his wand to one of the Pixies trying to grab his wand and cast "immobulus" the pixie stiffened. Nick plucked the blue critter out of the air and passed it to Huge.

"Thanks mate. We could always put them all back in the cage and use the rest of class to do a group recap." Huge pointed out. Marcus walked back over to their desks and passed Huge three more immobilized pixies.

"I wont mind practicing my 'Expelliarmus' I understand the theory but I always struggle with the practice part." Huge gentle bent another pixie into place. He sat back and looked at his creation with immense satisfaction.

He looked around the group. Everyone just shrugged with a sort of resigned acceptance. It wasn't that everyone wanted to work but if they were caught in the halls when they had class they'd get into trouble and playing with pixies was really more trouble than it was worth.

The last of the pixies were rounded up and put back into their cage. The group then moved into pairs and worked on their "expelliarmus" work.

The only time Nick had ever used the Latin version of the disarming sleep was in his testing period over a month ago. The first few rounds Nick was sent onto his ass with Marcus laughing merrily at his expense, but after a few tries Nick got the hang of the spell.

"Come on Nickie, don't be afwaid" Marcus sang as Nick dover behind an overturned desk to avoid Marcus expelliarmus.

"Not afraid," Nick hissed. He sent out a expelliarmus at the wall above Marcus head, when the boy moved out of the way Nick sent another expelliarmus where he figure the boy would move to. Sure enough the sound of wood hitting the floor followed by the painful yelp from Marcus, was enough for Nick to stand up from his hiding spot and sauntered over to his dorm mate.

Nick didn't say anything. He simply leaned casually against the desk Marcus had been trying to dive behind.

"Yeah Nick" Eddie and Huge cheered from their place of relative safety at the back of the class with the rest of the third year Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs.

"That was not proper dueling," One of the girls from Ravenclaw pointed out dryly. The girls behind her tittered and grinned at one another.

"It was very… athletic," one of the girls said. A blush crept into her cheeks when Nick and Marcus gave her a grateful bow.

"Why thank you" they said in unison. It wasn't as cool as when the twins talked in unison thought, being as Nick still sounded like he was hissing most of the time.

"Perhaps we could work on other spells now?" on of the hufflepuffs asked The group looked at the boy who spook. He smiled sheepishly, "I was hoping we could work on the Repairo spell. I can't ever get it right".

"We could maybe get into groups and work on different spells," one of the Ravenclaw girls suggested, "I wanted to work on my Lumos it's not very bright."

The group slowly split into small groups of four or five people and started working on different spells. Nick found himself wandering between groups. He had particular affinity for the Bombarda spell. He gave several demonstrations with a little miniature door Eddie had transfigure from a desk. With a lazy flick of his wrist, "Bombarda", the door swung open gently. A more forceful swish and a rather terse "Bombarda" and the door slammed open. Just for fun, Nick tried yelling "Bombarda" and found the door flying across the classroom to collide with one of the overturned desk at the front.

One of the Ravenclaw girls, Cho Chang, was kind enough to go over Petrificus Totalus with Nick and two Hufflepuff girls. Spells with 't's in them Nick normally found particularly difficult but by the time class was over he could get it once every three or so tries.

The group of Puffs and Ravenclaws walked and chatted all the way back to the great hall. Eddie, Marcus, Huge, and Nick took their regular seats, but when Nick noticed Luna had no shoes on, he moved her in between Huge and himself. He shot his dorm mates a warning glare to behave.

If Luna notice anything was out of the ordinary she didn't say anything. The other firsties looked almost disappointed to not have their favorite verbal target but quickly found amusement in gossiping about Draco Malfoy's second place in Defence Against the Dark Arts. Apparently some muggle born had out performed him every year running.

"Nicholas," Luna called, Nick turned to his favorite firstie and smiled, "you haven't happen to see my Herbology homework with you books?" Nick shook his head, "ah, well it will show up eventually."

Nick frowned and looked between the other first year girls and Luna and raised an eyebrow.

Luna shrugged, "it's all in good fun". Nick opened his mouth to argue but Luna gave him a disarmingly happy smile so he shut his mouth and accepted it.

After dinner the Ravenclaws collectively moved to the library with a few exceptions. Nick found himself seated with Luna and a Gryffindor first year.

"Nick, this is Ginny Weasley. Ginny, Nick Broda," Luna introduced merrily. Nick nodded towards the girl and opened his potions homework. Snape had been… kind enough… to assign extra work on identification of potions to Nick after he failed to read the instructions properly yet again and ended up producing a perfectly brewed Draught of Living Death rather than a much easier to produce Dreamless Sleep Potion. It was better than detention writing lines or scrubbing cauldrons as Nick had already been given both after two other failed attempts to translate the title of the potion on the board.

"Are you going to go to Hogsmeade," Luna asked suddenly.

Nick looked up from his work and seemed to think for a moment.

"You really should," Ginny encouraged. Her eyes widened and she turned back to her work as if trying to blend into the books on her desk.

Nick gave Luna a quizative look, but Luna just smiled back. Guess Luna didn't know why here Ginny didn't like to talk to him.

"I migh' go. Did you wan' some'ing?" Nick asked Luna.

"Chocolate" Luna said decisively, "I will need chocolate".

"Ginny?" Nick asked. The redheaded girl looked up and smiled shyly.

"I'm fine thanks, my brothers are going, I'll get them to pick me up a little chocolate."

Nick frowned, "Weasley? Fred and George?" The idea of trusting the twins with getting untampered edibles was clearly being questioned in his tone of voice.

Ginny laughed, "It's fine, they only mess with Ron's food. Plus I'll ask Percy to pick it up, I trust him more with this sort of thing"

"You, Ron, George, Fred..." Nick motioned as if to ask how many siblings she had.

"Percy, Charles and William" Ginny smiled bashfully.

"I always wanted a sister, or a brother" Luna said.

Nick turned to Luna and with a very straight face. He started fixing her hair, straightened her robes and refastened the miniature carrot in her hair. "No boys," Nick demanded. With a final brush of the shoulders he nodded approval and let Luna turn back to her work.

"Best be careful Luna, brothers can be a right pain most of the time," Ginny warned.

Nick face fell and he shot Ginny a look of miserable broken heartedness. At first Ginny looked surprised and started trying to backpedal, but when she caught sight of the twink in Nick's eyes she tossed a quill at him. "You're as bad as the twins, honestly"

That weekend, Fred and George meet Nick at the Entrance Hall and the three headed down to village.

"Lets start at Zonko's Joke Shop," Fred said.

"I have to get a few things from Potage's Cauldron Shop, but I can meet you there" Nick said.

George flung an arm around Nick, "Na, itty bitty Nickie, we'll come with you. Maybe there will be something to…"

"Inspire us" the twins choroused.

"Alright, but Honeydukes" Nick said.

The twins nodded understandingly. "Don't you worry, we'll save time for Honeydukes".


	3. Chapter 3

_Parseltongue_

English

"Talking"

Speaking in the mind

*note I talked about the gryffindor/ slytherin game as if it already happened in previous chapters, but it happens a bit later from now.

_Chapter 3 _

Nick moved Luna's feet from the couch and sat himself down beside her. She folded up her homework and look at him expectantly. He pulled out a basket from his pocket and unshrunk it. The basket was as large as four bludgers and filled to the brim with chocolate.

Luna looked at Nick very seriously, "Did you know your head is Fuzzeltwirks?" which was Luna's unique way of call him crazy.

"They must be the voices in my head," Nick joked.

"Eight," Eddie said. Huge and Marcus sat themselves in the chairs opposite Nick with Eddie perched on the arm of Huge's chair. "Eight whole words, most I've ever heard you speak"

"More importantly, where's my chocolate?" Marcus demanded in faux-anger.

Nick just shrugged.

"Eddie, you scared him off. Why'd you have to point out his speaking habits, he was doing so well too." Huge winned.

Nick sent a pillow sailing across the room to smash into Huge's face. Huge whipped out his wand and redirect the pillow to Marcus, who ducked. The pillow went sailing right into the fire.

"Well done Huge" Eddie mocked.

"Better hope, Professor Flitwick doesn't notice," Marcus said.

"You could tell him it was the Nargles, there are a few in my dorm. They keep taking my shoes," Luna wiggled her bare toes, "it's all in good fun though."

"Why don't you just summon them? Eddie asked.

The three other boys looked at Eddie in mild surprise. Why hadn't anyone else thought of that?

Luna lifted her wand, "Accio Luna's shoes"

"You sure that won't simply call all your shoes?" Marcus asked.

"I only thought of the ones I wanted," Luna explained.

Marcus blinked, "Is that how Accio works?"

Huge gave Marcus a rather sympathetic pat on the shoulder, "not everyone is really meant to be in Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff simply can't take everyone. We understand this though, and support you in your efforts to fit in."

"Stimulus Carnis" Marcus sent a stinging jinx at Huge's arm.

Huge grabbed Eddie's arm and pulled him down so the jinx hit Eddie rather than Huge. "Hey," Eddie yelped, "That's it, I'm going to sit by Luna, she's much nicer. Lovely shoes by the way," Eddie nudged Luna over a bit and sat beside her.

Nick motioned for Luna to pass him the shoes. Luna gave the over. "_Thieves beware, steal these and lose your hair" _Nick hissed as quietly as he could. He was positive Luna heard him but she didn't seem fazed in the least. The other three boys were still yelling loudly about the sorting hat's methods and in all likelihood hadn't notice.

"It will stop 'hieve" Nick said as he passed the shoes back to Luna.

"You should try listening to the walls with Harry Potter," Luna suggested. That comment seemed to catch the interest of the three boys.

"Luna," Huge said gently, "I mean this in the nicest way possible, but you're crazy".

Luna just smiled.

Grant Page stormed into the Ravenclaw common room in a whirlwind of parchment and vibes of stress and frustration. "Broda, quidditch practice in ten, move it" Grant stormed passed the group sitting by the fire and slammed his way up to his dorm.

"I'm sorry sister, you'll have to study alone," Nick spoke softly to Luna.

"That was almost ten words," Huge congratulated Nick. The other's laughed.

Before Nick was even done changing, Grant stormed into Nick's dorm and grabbed him by the collar to drag him down the stairs to quidditch pitch. Nick managed to wrestled out of Grant's grasp, but he still had to fasten his quidditch robes as he nearly sprinted beside Grant.

"Captain wants to practice twice a week until our next game, three hours a practice. Apparently slytherins have all new brooms." Grant huffed as the two pulled into the quidditch pitch.

"I need to study" Nick pointed out.

Grant sent a "Bombardia" at the grass. Nick took three decisive steps back.

"Cool it Page, no one wants to practice that much. The captain can practice on his own if he wants to win that badly. I have OWLs to study for, not to mention that extra credit project Flitwick gave me." One of the beaters said.

Nick didn't bother staying to lament with the others, in part from fear that the next bombardia would be sent at him. Nick mounted his brow and took off into the air. Grant throw him the Quaffle to pass around for a bit. Mostly, Nick just dodged the wind and passed the ball through the hops.

"Hey Nick, want to play a little two on one?" The beater offered. Nick slowed to a stop long enough to nodded before whizzing off. Grant was on his tail with in seconds. Nick hopped up onto the shaft of his broom and leaped up in time to dodge Grant from knocking into him. He landed perfectly on his broom again and tossed the Quaffle into the goal. Catching it again and passing it to Grant.

Grant zipped off towards the opposite side of the field, but Nick was quick to catch up. He knocked into Grant with his side and used his hand to knock the ball out of Grants grasp. Nick dove down and caught the Quaffle, heading like a bullet towards the goals against.

The practice carried on for the promised three hours. Nick had always been a fairly strong flyer, but mostly he'd flown on the backs of dragons or riding Pegasus across the ocean. Not to mention the few times he had flown a broom, he's done so to avoid death not to throw a large red ball through a hop. It was, in his humble opinion, a lot more fun to play quidditch.

That and his dodging skills were improving quickly, which was bound to come in handy at some point during the Hunt. There was actually some practical use for improving his quidditch skills. The team agreed to two three hour practices a week until their first game, but after that they go back to one, one and a half hour practice a week.

Grant and Nick ditched the others after practice and headed down to the dungeons.

"I know why I'm going this way, but why are you?" Grant asked.

"Homework," Nick answered, not really knowing what the English equivalent of _"to hand in the extra homework the overgrown bat assigned me" _was.

"Getting help or handing in?"

"Second" Nick shuffled behind Grant as they passed a group of slytherins

"Grant" Marcus Flint, the head of the group sneered.

Grant stiffened. "Flint"

"Why are you?" Nick nodded further down the hall towards the dungeons.

Grant grinned, "Personal reason."

Nick looked at Grant in surprise. He honestly hadn't expected the book-devoted Ravenclaws to even have a love life.

"Don't look so surprised, I'm not that anti-social".

Nick hummed non-committally

"Well we did meet through a study group. That really not the point though. Stop looking at me like you're judging me. And I'll have you know, since I can see that raise eyebrow, that she is not in fact using my to get better grades. She not! stop looking like…. like that! We really have something." Grant gave Nick a friendly shove, "What ever, what do you know, you're just a teeny tiny third year. Not to mention you seem to spend most of your time with first years. What would you know about women."

Grant paused and grabbed a hold of Nick's arm and pulling him back. "You and Luna are just friends yeah? For the love of god you better be, she's a first year."

"She's a sister."

"Oh," Grant let go of Nick and they resumed their walk down the corridor. "That's alright then. She really doesn't talk to many people does she? I've see her with Ginny Weasley, but that's about it."

"Snape," Nick motioned towards the potion classroom. He didn't really think the potion professor would still be in there, but he really wanted to get away from Grant. Nick had spent his whole life concentrated on the Hunt. This talk on love lives and sisters with near strangers, was beyond awkward.

"Alright, see you in the common room late then" Grant waved.

Nick approached the potion classroom and took a single calming breath before opening the classroom door. Lo and behold, the Bat of the Dungeon was still sitting at his desk marking papers.

"You've finished your assignment then I take it." Professor Snape extended a hand expectantly, all the while keeping his eyes on his work.

Nick pulled out his assignment and passed it to his professor.

Snape looked up long enough to give it the briefest of glances. Snape pulled a piece of neatly folded parchment from somewhere within the stacks of work and passed it to Nick. "This is a list of the potions we will be doing in class, as well as the days we will be doing them. Read the instructions before hand. I refuse to continue this game with you. Class should not be a guessing game, hind in the potions I assign."

Nick took the parchment and unfolded it, to no ones surprise he didn't recognised the English name of a single potion, but he figure he'd figure them out later. Snape went back to his work, clearly dismissing Nick.

"Thank you," Nick muttered softly, before turning on his heels and retreating out the door.

Nick head back to the Ravenclaw common room long enough to change out of his quidditch gear and note that Luna wasn't there. When he didn't find her in the library, he opted to work on translating the potion names Snape gave him into Parsalscripe. Thinking of all the potions he was going to be making, got Nick into the mood to make potions and moments before curfew, Nick found himself in the secluded sanctuary of the Parsalscripe library brewing a Murtlap Essence to help with healing all the little scrapes and cuts he got in herbology.

"_Has the quality of this institution really fall so much that your absence can go unnoticed?" _The portrait above the fireplace asked five minutes after curfew was in effect

Nick shrugged, _"We'll find out I suppose. I keep my curtains draw around my bed closed most of the time, my roommates will probably just assume I am already asleep."_

The painting gave out a sigh of long suffering, _"And I suppose there is no way for your head of house to simply _check _that everyone is in fact in the dormitory who should be?"_

"_If there is Professor Flitwick has never used it. I see people come and go from the dorm at all hours of the night."_

"_They do not send you from the common room after a time?" _The painting asked in surprise.

"_Nope" _Nick hissed the word with a pop, in a half English half parseltongue fashion. The room was silent for a moment as Nick minced the pickled Murtlap tentacles and gently lowered them into the cauldron.

Nick look up to notice the painting watching him work. _"You would make an adequate potion master" _the painting noted.

"_Thank you, I will keep that in mind when the Hunt is over," _

"_The Hunt?" _The painting asked.

Nick paused his moment for a fraction of a second. _"I don't really know how to explain it. I honestly don't know that much about it. I do know that a man who wanted to be immortal made a terrible decision a very long time ago and now a friend of a friend can't go home."_

"_That is a remarkable vague explanation" _

Nick shrugged, _"It's the best I've ever been given". _He shifted back on his heels and watch the cauldron simmer, waiting for the pale orange liquid to change to an electric blue color.

"_The potion loses potency if bottled in glass. It is better to use a bronze flask" _the portrait pointed out absently.

Nick's hand paused over the glass vial he was about to grab and moved to the small store of empty bronze ones he had.

"_That is an interesting potion set" _

Nick looked at the portable chinese medicine cabinet. It looked like a redwood box when all folded up. When unfolded it became a very large medicine cabinets adorned with preserving charms and anti-theft wards and all sorts of magic Nick had never been able to identify. The best part was that the magic had been done several hundred years ago by a very powerful shaman with the aid of several very powerful spirits. The magic was beyond what most witches and wizards had ever heard about and even the most powerful magical creatures knew next to nothing about shaman magic unless they were a shaman themselves.

The few times people had tried to steal from Nick's potion surprise had ended rather violently for the would be thieves.

"_It was a gift" _Nick explained as he ran a gentle finger over the old outlines wards.

"_You're a Slytherin, who some how ended up in the Ravenclaw house and you walk around with a Gryffindor style potion set." _

Nick took a second glance at his cabinet as he poured his potion into a bronze flask. It was infact a very bright red with a lot of gold in the design. I did look like the sort of thing a Gryffindor would own.

_ "Have you thought of a memory for your patronus yet?" _

Nick signed as he scrubbed out his cauldron and set it aside. _"Not yet, I'm sure something will come to mind soon though." _

_ "Best sleep on it then. Now it is late, go back to your dorms before I find reason to wake your head of house myself and give him a stern lecture on the safety of students."_

Nick grinned, and gave a mocking bow to the portrait _"Invisible. Silent" _Nick hissed at himself and his things before slipping back out into the corridor. He passed unnoticed for most of the journey, though a stray cat noticed him. She didn't seem terribly concerned with him though, and even let him pet her for a bit. For a moment, Nick feared it was Professor Mcgonagall, but since the Professor would never in a million years let a student pet her, Nick figure it must be someone's framillar.

The next day, Nick came down to the common room to find Luna dressed head to toe in black and orange. She had a pumpkin leaf crown on her head and two pumpkin earrings dangling down near her shoulders.

"Feeling Festive?" Nick asked, as the girl in question gathered her things and walked with Nick down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

"It just seemed like a pumpkin sort of day today," Luna answered airily. She seemed to sort of skip as she walked. "You know I had the biggest surprise this morning."

"Oh?"

"That nargles didn't steal my shoes…. and two girls in my dorm have no hair,"

Nick managed to keep a very straight face, "how very strange,"

"Indeed. Maybe the Nargles stole their hair. I told them as much. I don't think they agreed though."

Nick made a very understanding humming noise, but when he caught sight of the mischievous glint in Luna's eyes he could keep the laughter in any longer.

"You really shouldn't laugh, nargles can be very nasty creatures when crossed," Luna skipped down the hall with an air of innocent naivety she always seem to carry, but Nick had seen those eyes. She knew precisely what had happened. Precious child was the best actor he'd ever seen.

When Eddie, Marcus and Huge came down to breakfast they all turned to Luna. "Any clue what happened to the other first year girls? I heard screaming this morning."

"Nargles," Was all Luna said.

"Ah… well that makes sense I guess." Huge said. He turned to the other two and gave a confused shrug.

"Excited for the Halloween feast?" Eddie asked Huge.

"Better believe it. Luna? clearly you're looking forward to it," Huge noted Luna's outfit.

"What makes you think that?" Luna asked curiously.

Huge blinked, "Well… your…" he motioned around his head in an effort to indicate the pumpkin crown Luna was wearing. All the while Luna watch him patiently as if waiting for the boy to form a coherent sentence. Huge just sort of stop though. He look desperately at Luna, begging her to see what he was trying to say but she just kept the same nieve air as she always did.

"So…. Nick," Marcus tactlessly cut in, "Ever been to a halloween feast?"

Nick nodded, "Two in the U.S., One in Canada, and One in Costa Rica."

"Bet Hogwarts will put them all to shame, the house elves really go all out for Halloween." Eddie gushed.

Nick shrugged, "Costa Rica is... wild" Nick stared off in the distance remembering the beach parties and bon fires. The magic had flown freely the time. Several colonies of Mermaids had come and lit the ocean up with bright Red and orange lights. The muggles had sent up fireworks and witches and wizards transfigured nearly everything into halloween themed figures.

Nick specifically remembered a very inebriated Wizzard having flying pumpkin races with Alex and the two of them crashing into one another and landing on a giant fluffy pumpkin floating in the ocean. Nick had to swim out to the pair to hover them back to the beach. Several mermaids had swam with him and chatted at him as he swam. Not knowing how to respond underwater and not speaking anything other than parseltongue, he had, had to endure the entire journey nodded awkwardly and trying to keep his breath long enough to not keep diving back to the surface. Mermaids considered very rude to leave a conversation to go to the service.

Halloween had been the night the magical governments and the muggle government all got together to sign a cross-species, cross-cultural agreement. It was a huge moment in Costa Rica's history and celebrated as such. The party started at daybreak on Halloween morning and ended well into the following day.

"You look unconvinced, but you'll see Hogwarts has the best halloween celebration ever." Eddie said with a level of conviction, Nick normally reserved for his repeated declaration that old Moldy Shorts was not a proper Slytherin and in no way a part of the family.

Really being as they still had to go to class, Hogwarts Halloween was already below Costa Rica. that being said Canada and the US had both started partying late in the evening, so there was still hope on that front.

Classes dragged on, Charms was particularly boring and Professor Flitwick covered the theory of the cheering charm, but ran out of time before students got a chance to practice

"How can anyone make a class on cheering charms boring is beyond me" Adrian Pucey, from Slytherin grumbled.

Despite the fact that Eddie himself had been dozing off for most of the class, Eddie, Marcus and Huge jumped to the defence of their head of house.

"Felix" Nick cast the cheering charm at Adrian and smiled cheekily at the suddenly deliriously happy Slytherin.

"Oi, what'd you hit him with?" Miles Bletchley, another Slytherin, demanded.

Nick shot the boy a rather condescending look before sending a sudden "Felix" at the boy.

"Not fair," Eddie grumbled.

Nick sighed and turned to face the group of Slytherins and Ravenclaws that were walking as a group towards the great hall for lunch. He cast "Felix" on each and every one of them. Adrian was then kind enough to return the favor, casting a perfect "Felix" at Nick. By the time the large group of students made it to the great hall, they were all laughing and joking as a group. The usual house, grade-based tention forgotten.

"What happened to you?" Grant Page asked as they Ravenclaw third years made themselves comfortable at the table.

"Charms" Eddie said. When Grant didn't seem to catch on, Eddie raised his wand and sent a "Felix" his way.

"Ah, that makes sense. Why'd you cast it on the Slytherins though?"

Eddie, Marcus and Huge turned to Nick for an explanation but Nick didn't really pay them any mind. He was too busy listening to Luna explain the benefits of not having any hair to the other first year girls.

Marcus noticed where he was looking. "I think the firsties could use a Felix". Marcus raised his wand, but Nick caught his hand and gently lowered it back to the table. He gave Marcus a vicious grin.

"They're only first year" Huge tried to point out seriously but he couldn't keep the smile off his face or the joy out of his voice.

The voice of one of the first year girls floated over to the group of boys. "That's the most absurd thing I've ever heard Loony Lovegood. I bet you won't be such a terrible witch if your mother hadn't gone and blown herself up."

The effects of the Felix charm seemed to fade considerably for everyone who had heard the comment.

Much to Nick's surprise, Marcus was up before him. He pulled Luna out of her seat and moved her between himself and Nick at the table. Huge reach over and retrieve the girls plate before any other the other first years could do anything to Luna's food.

Grant turned back to his own roommate to discuss their own charm work, and Nick, Luna and the boys started debating the different study schedules they had devised for exams.

"You really should give them their hair back," Luna whispered when she and Nick excused themselves to head to the library.

"You heard what they said," Nick growled.

Luna shook her head. The air of innocence and naivety faded considerably, "they were hurt and lashed out. You do it too when you don't understand what people are saying. I've seen you growl at Eddie before when he's trying to explain the homework to you." Luna paused as they passed a portrait of a young man observing the many wands laying on the counter in front of him. "I know you are trying to help, but you hurt them. I thought it was funny this morning, but I don't really anymore. It's only a prank if everyone finds it funny."

Nicked nodded in understanding. It really was a rather vicious prank. He resolved to fix it at dinner tonight.

Luna found a table with Ginny in the library. Nick mostly worked on his Draconifors Spell for transfigurations class. He created a small group of dragons by transfiguring them from objects like quills, books and scarves. unfortunately the scales were never quite right.

Luna was helping Ginny with her charms homework when Adrian Pucey sauntered over to the table. Ginny, the ever fearless Gryffindor, glared at the third year Slytherin.

Adrian sent a haughty sneer at the first years and turned to Nick. "I heard you are good at potions." Adrian waited for a confirmation from Nick, but after a moments paused carried on, "Myself and a couple of other Slytherin's were planning on going over that portion Snapes said we're doing in class tomorrow."

When Adrian refused to elaborate, Ginny kindly cut in, "I think he's asking for help."

Adrian sneered at Ginny again. "Well?" He asked Nick. Adrian seemed to just notice the collection of dragons on the table, "I can teach you how to get the scale right if you do this for us."

Nick grinned, "Deal".

"Right, well we were going to head down to the dungeon now. Professor Snape lets us use the classroom when he doesn't to teach."

"Blatant favoritism." Ginny muttered.

If Professor Flitwick wasn't his head of house, Nick might have been inclined to point out that the charms professor often allowed Ravenclaws the chance to do side projects. He was even known to let sixth and seventh years borrow from his personal library from time to time. He certainly didn't extended the same opportunities to the other houses.

Furthermore, Professor Mcgonagall was notoriously lenient on punishing her own house. She was fair, just more fair to her house then she was to the other houses.

Nick didn't say any of this because A. he didn't really think it would change Ginny's view, B. he hadn't the faintest idea how to say all that in English and C. the girl would probably faint from shock if he started hissing parseltongue at her.

Adrian gave Nicks arm a gentle tug. Nick gather his stuff and transfigured the dragons back to their original form before following the small group of the Slytherins to the dungeons.

Part way through the practical potion study session, the world nearly came to an end. Nick looked up for a brief moment and caught the strict as sin Poison Professor smiling. Mind you, It wasn't the sweet and kind smile Luna favored. It was more of a slight twitch of the lips upwards. It was a slightly more positive smirk, really. Still for the potion master, that counted as a smile.

Nick was quick to jerk his head back to the cauldrons in from of the Slytherins. He managed to casually knock the Eye of Not out of Adrian's hand before the idiot put it into his cauldron. Nick grabbed a pinch of Not Tail and added it the cauldron instead. He gave the cauldron three slow stirs counter clock wise and pointed to the step the potion was now at on the parchment in front of Adrain.

"Can you read English?" Adrain asked.

The two other Slytherins looked at Adrian in surprise. It was a rather thoughtless question, and much more likely to come from a Gryffindor, but Nick wasn't fazed in the least.

"No, not really. I translate" Nick explained. He motioned for one of the other Slytherins to chop finer.

The boy obeyed by looked up at Nick was he added the ingredients to his cauldron, "How can you do potions then? or Herbology? or charms?"

Nick smile faltered. How on earth had he been surviving his classes? He couldn't precisely walk around with his English-parselscrip dictionary. The only time he got to translate was in the relative safety of his own bed for an hour or so every night. Mostly he justed guessed his way through the homework. The essays he wrote were terrible and his grades generally reflected that.

"If you help me with the practical portion of class, I can look over your essay" Adrian offered.

Nick smiled and nodded. Generally Ravenclaws bought and traded help with knowledge. Since all of Nick's books were in Parseltongue, he never had anything to trade.

"Professor Snape, Does this look acceptable" One of the other two slytherins had bottled his potion and taken it to the professor for examination. He'd done so a bit too soon and Professor Snape said as much. When Adrian took up his potion, Snape merely nodded in satisfaction.

When the Slytherins left the class for the the Halloween Feast, Snape called Nick to his desk.

"The Headmaster failed to inform me you do not in fact speak or read English. Had I know you were an ESL student I assure you I would have tailored your work accordingly. As it stands, I will revised the work you have already handed in and adjust your mark accordingly. See me after class Monday for your revised criteria for future assignments. That is all Mr. Borda".

Nick blinked twice then slowly turned and headed for the door to the hall. "Thank you Professor" He called over his shoulder before he left, but Snape didn't make any indication he noticed.

Luna grabbed Nick when he entered the beautifully decorated Great Hall and dragged him over to one of the Pumpkins. She proceeded to give the most bizarre explanation of Pumpkin carving in ancient times Nick had ever heard. But he noticed that she stood just slightly out of the way of Nick's view of the other first year girls but out of view from the professors. He could easily use is Parselmagic without notice.

"_Cancel Curse" _Nick hissed at the girls. There was no immediate change as the hair would normally grow back naturally. Luna sent Nick a rather pointed look and he cast a spell for the girls hair to regrow. To be styled, and to temporarily change color of the halloween festivities.

Luna turned to look at Nick's handy work.

"I had to disguise myself and others fairly frequently." Nick tried to explain away his talent.

Luna nodded understandingly, "Very useful. Well we really should go eat."

The food was, as Eddie had predicted, devine. There was no great party afterwards though. When everyone had eaten their fill they simply went to bed. Really a bit of a let down in Nick's opinion.

Eddie, Marcus and Huge had looped Nick into a conversation comparing Halloween traditions on their way out of the Great Hall when the students in front of the abruptly came to a hault.

Written in blood on the wall was "THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE".

A rather bewildered Harry Potter stood between his two friends: one of Ginny's older brothers and a bushy haired genius.

The twins stood not far behind them looking both horrified and pleased at the same time.

Hanging from the wall was the cat Nick had run into the other day. The poor thing looked stiff as a board.

If Europeans hadn't been know to absolutely louth Parseltongues, Nick would have suggested a way to unpetrified the poor cat. Fear of being labeled the Devil Incarnated and thrown into Azkaban kept Nick quite. Not to mention, everyone would surely think he was the Heir… of whatever it was the author was the heir to.

"Heir?" Nick asked Marcus quietly as the Headmaster and a few of the professors swept past.

"Heir of Slytherin. It's said the Founder left a monster under the school when he left, in hopes that one of his descendants would let the monster out and it would kill all the Muggle borns and Half-bloods." Marcus whispered faintly.

Everyone looked shocked and a bit fearful.

Nick was more outraged to see that once again someone was soiling the good name of Slytherin.

"Everyone back to your common rooms," One of the professors called. The Ravenclaw prefect called the attention of the Ravenclaws and started hoarding them towards the common room.

Eddie turned to Marcus and Nick as they entered their dorm room, "You really believe he's the heir?"

Huge flopped himself down on Eddies bed and grabbed the boxes of Every Flavour Beans off the boy's bed side table, "I certainly hope not. He's supposed to be our saviour"

"He might be, he is a bit… off" Eddie observed.

"He better not start targeting muggle borns" Marcus declared haughtly. There was a slight quiver in his voice that none of the other boys commented on.

"Broda, that's not in the pureblood 28 is it?" Eddie asked Nick. The boy was probably trying to comfort Marcus in some roundabout way, but it only made Nick feel a bit uncomfortable.

"I'm not from England" Nick pointed out. This was definitely not the time to point out he was a descendant of Salazar Slytherin. "I am a pureblood" Nick pointed out as an afterthought.

"Any idea if the Broda has any ties to any Ancient families from Europe?" Marcus asked.

'Does the family of make believe count?' Nick thought to himself, because his last name was the grabbed from the author of book Nick had been gifted. "Schoolyard-Enhanced Learning". It was a book written entirely in English that had been given to Nick and he had properly re-gifted at the first opportunity.

"I really don't think so" Nick told his roommates. Nick grabbed his things to get ready for bed.

Huge looked at him surprised, "You're going to bed, just like that. Potter might try to kill you at the first opportunity and you're just going to bed."

Nick just shrugged, changed and went to bed.


	4. Chapter 4

Parseltongue

English

"Talking"

Speaking in the mind

"Fred, can you transfigure things on mass?" Nick asked. The twins paused their exploration of Nick's Potion Cabinet.

"'faird not" Fred said.

"Why'd ya ask?" George leaned against the desk Nick was working on.

Nick pointed wand at the abandoned scarf and transfigured it into a perfect blue dragon. "Dragon wars at dinner" Nick said, in hopes that the twins would catch onto the prank idea.

Naturally, they did. In fact they grinned wildly and seemed to be scheming before they even opened their mouths. "We do however know where they keep the cups and plates between meals"

"And there is a way to delay the effects of a transfiguration, but we'll have to do it individually."

Nick nodded. "Well I'll only be a few more minutes. Scrub out that other caultrid and I'll finish up here."

The twins grinned at Nick happily. "You've come a long way my apprentice" Nick rolled his eyes. The twins flanked either side of Nick and lead him down the twist and turns of the halls. Until the came to a painting of a lush green meadow. The pocked the only boulder in the landscape and the painting swung open. Inside were neatly arranged shelves with all the cutlery, plates, bowls and goblets used at meals.

The group put their stuff down at the door. Fred and George quickly explained the spell and then the three got to work setting up all the transfiguration spells.

When lunch came, the twins were practically twitching with anticipation. Both Professor Mcgonagall and Professor Snape eyed the twins, but they said nothing.

Part way into the meal, when the chatter was the loudest, the later comers were present and those quick to leave hadn't quite finished, the goblets all over the great all turned dragons. Those at the Gryffindor table were red; those at the Ravenclaw table, blue; Hufflepuff goblets were yellow, Slytherin dragons were green; and the goblets from the head table were golden.

The miniature dragons took to the sky. They screeched and attacked one another. Dragons that were mortally wounded popped back into their goblet form and clatter to the ground. Most of the students screamed in surprise when their goblets took to the sky. Though as the battle raged on students started cheering for their house team. Professor Snape looked furious but Professor Mcgonagall look like she was trying to force down a smile.

"Go sparky" Fred yelled over the other students. One of the dragons suddenly began breathing fire.

"Oi, You cheater!" Marcus Flint yelled over from the Slytherin tables. He pointed at one of the green dragons and yelled a spell. A green dragon started spewing fire balls.

Suddenly the sixth and seventh years students from nearly every table were adding modification to the goblet dragons.

Headmaster Dumbledore let the Dragon Wars wage on for nearly half an hour before he stood up and clapped his hands together. The dragons vanished and goblets reappeared in front of each students.

"Fred and George Weasley you have detention with Mr. Filch tonight at 8" Professor Mcgonagall announced as Dumbledore took his seat again. If any of the professors knew of Nicks involvement in the prank they didn't bother to condemn him for it.

"That was bloody brilliant" Eddie gushed. He was grinning ear to ear and admiring his goblet as if it would suddenly leap back into dragon form.

"Why not get a dragon framillar?" Nick motioned to say he meant a miniature dragon. The Ravenclaws sitting around Nick looked at him confusion. "China make" Nick tried to explain. He looked at Luna for help.

"You can order miniature dragons from China. I read once that they can come in any colour or every color." Luna explained. She plucked plucked a radish from a dish in the middle of the table and made it lager, added a feather charm on it, hollowed it out and placed it on her head as hat.

The Ravenclaws all looked at the crazy girl and back to Nick. Nick looked at Luna's hat and back to the observers and shrugged.

"My friend… makes… them" Nick tried to elaborate.

"Breeds" Eddie offered.

Nick nodded. "Breeds them".

Cho Chang hummed thoughtfully, "How expensive are they?"

Nick shrugged, "I can ask"

Cho nodded enthusiastically.

Nick pulled parchment and a quill from his bag and quickly penned a note to his friend in China. It would probably take a while to get there and back, but owls were remarkably resourceful creatures so it was hard to say how long it would take.

Nick waved goodbye and gathered his things to head to the owlery. He got one of the school owls to deliver the letter. Then headed down towards his History of Magic class.

He was fairly close to his class when he vaguely heard _"Kill… Kill… Kill… Kill" _Coming from the wall.

Nick paused and looked around but there was no one around. _"Kill? Kill who?" _Nick called out.

"_Must protect the school… Kill… Kill… Kill" _The wall hissed.

Nick followed the voice down the hall. _"Protect the school from what?" _Nick asked. But the voice had faded away. Nick could hear voiced up ahead, It was Eddie, Marcus and Huge heading towards History of Magic.

Nick tried to backpedal out of view to go look for the beast behind the wall, but he'd been spotted.

"Send that letter off?" Eddie asked

"Er… yeah" Nick answered, his gaze following the stone walls.

Marcus stepped in front of him, "are you alright? You're pale as a ghost"

"Transolutant not pale" Huge muttered behind Marcus but the other ignored him.

"I'm fine, let's head to class" Nick said. The others didn't seem convinced, but they let Nick lead them down the hall to the dusty History class.

Marcus set up a chessboard and he and Huge started playing. Eddie pulled out a cauldron, cutting board, and a few potion ingredient and started working on the potion they would be doing in class. He made notes about what went well and what didn't as he went.

Nick pulled out his Herbology essay and got to work. Making little notes in parselscript here and there when he couldn't think of the word he wanted in English.

"Hey Nick what are those?" Eddie asked when he caught sight of the strange scribbles on Nick's page.

Nick's mind blanked as he started at the parselscript. He probably shouldn't have been writing in his native tongue when others could see what he was writing, but then again Eddie didn't really sound like he had any idea that the writing was tied to Parseltongue.

"Doodles" Marcus suggested when he saw the writing. "It means little pictures. Like this," Marcus held up his charms homework and showed Nick the little stickmen around the border.

Nick just went with it, "Yeah doodles". He silently thanked his roommate for the easy explanation and went back to his work. Much to his surprise and amusement, the other boys bought the excuse and didn't question him on it any further.

After class, He headed off in look of the voice in the wall, but Fred and George found him and coerced him into helping them plan for another prank. He spent the rest of the day brewing Hair-Raising Potion and Volubilis Potion. The two would be put in the food the following night to change the entire student bodies hair and voice. Unfortunately that meant brewing several batches since Nick only had one small cauldron.

The twins hovered around him chatting about life and telling him about all the new invention they had. They explained the type of potions they wanted to make and Nick explained a few ways they might do that. He surprised himself when he was able to suggest a few English books the twins could look at for ideas.

The next evening, Grant Page pulled Nick out of his exploration of the halls to go watch the Gryffindor vs. Slytherina quidditch game.

"Captain said we have to go. He's apparently taking notes to help with our next practice so we'll be prepared when we face either team" Grant grumbled, equally unhappy that he was giving up a perfectly good day of studying to go watch quidditch.

Personally, Nick just wanted to find the voice that talked about killing but not having the evening to spend in the library was pretty miserable too.

"Let's sit with the Gryffindors," Grant suggested.

"You can sit with us," Flora and Hestia Carrow chorused. Nick turned to see the two third year Slytherin girls dressed head to toe in fashionable green outerwear.

Grant huffed and walked off. Nick frowned as he watched his teammate head over to the Gryffindor side.

He turned to the twins for an explanation "Abigail Montague broke of their… relationship yesterday" Flora explained.

Nick winced. He briefly thought about going to sit beside Grant to offer moral support but when he caught the glare the boy was giving the entire slytherin side, Nick thought 'Moral support be damned' and let the Carrow sister lead him to the Slytherin side.

"What are you doing here Broda?" One of the fifth year Slytherins spat his last name.

Nick made to motion that he was watching the game, but the Carrow sisters stepped in. "He's out guest, Warrington" The girls delivered Warrington's last name with the same disdain the boy had used towards the Broda name. Nick felt vaguely offended that the muggle name he stolen from a book was being insulted, but it was hard to feel to genuinely hurt about a name he had almost no connection with.

Warrington didn't seem terribly impressed, but when Marcus Flint, caption of the Slytherin team motioned for Warrington to back off, Nick and the Carrow sisters were left in peace.

Being a born and raised Slytherin, Nick was in part pleased to be accepted to some degree by the Hogwarts namesake house. Then again, the house was known for producing a good number of rather nasty individuals so perhaps it would be better to avoid the house entirely. The chance, thought, that there was in fact an underground parseltongue community won out and he stayed happily seated between the twins watching the game proceed.

He cheered loudly for every goal, and winced with all the others that noticed the snitch by Malfoy's ear. Nick doubly winced knowing how angry the seeker's teammates would be and the punishment they would undoubtedly inflict.

When Harry Potter was blasted to the ground by the rogue blugger, there were a few rather cruel cheer. The Carrow sisters were the first to visibly wince when Professor Lockhart approached the boy.

"Poor boy, I wouldn't what that freud treating my injuries." Flora Carrow whispered.

"Don't love him?" Nick teased the girls.

The twins gave an identical shy smile, "He's very handsome" Flora said.

"But bright as a troll" Hestia concluded.

The Carrow sisters both let out little squeaks as they watched the professor in question bend back potters hand to touch his arm.

"I do believe the idiot vanish all the bones in Potters arm" someone commented in the background.

"Ouch," Nick muttered.

"Come on, games over, best leave now before the everyone else does" One of the Carrow sisters lead Nick out of the stadium. It was a cool fall day and the wind gave the trio rosy cheeks.

"It's going to hurt to have bones regrow," Flora said. "It happened it me once."

"I did apologies," Hestia whined. She pulled on her sister's arm trying to keep her from going into detail.

Flora's eyes danced, "sister dear wants to be a healer…" Flora began. Nick turned and watched the girl attentively. Hestia let out a small whimper and barred her face into her sister's shoulder, "I fell off my broom and broke my arm. I was just going to go to Pomfrey to have it mended but sister dear wanted to give it a go at mending it. She said she'd been reading up on healing spells and I trusted her good judgement..."

"We were in first year" Hestia exclaimed.

Flora's nodded in agreement, "Dear sister here, only in first year and she managed to vanish a whole bone. Mind not as many as Professor Lockhart managed today but its a _Start_" Flora teased said the last bit in Professor Lockharts tone of voice. "You're going to make such a great healer one day."

"Thank you sister," Hestia huffed, "I'll have you know that I will indeed make a great healer one day. I got accepted as a temporary assistant at St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries this summer. I will be an excellent healer one day."

Flora smiled, "I know, but that doesn't mean I can't tease you from now until then".

"I'm impressed," Nick said to Hestia. He wanted to say more. To ask her about the application process and why she didn't work with Pomfrey in the mean time but he hated struggling with words in front of strangers and he really didn't know the Carrow sisters all that well.

"You should see if Professor Lockhart will give you advice about being famous." Flora said thoughtfully.

Hestia puffed up her chest and strutted forward like a peacock, "You know," She paused dramatically to grin at her small audience, "Celebrity is as celebrity does". Nick grinned and applauded.

Flora fell into a giggling fit, "Oh he's just like that."

"What about you Nick? What will you do? Adrian says you're practically a potion master. Even Professor Snape suggested asking for your help for the practical portion of Potions."

Nick looked at the sisters in shock. This was the first he was hearing of Snapes praise and suggesting that he could help the snakes in Potions was high praise indeed.

"Common, haven't you seen your grade in his class. You're even beating Hermione Granger. Marcus Flint says he's never heard of anyone getting that good a grade in Professor Snape's class." When the sisters saw Nicks blank expression they sighed and made a waving motion for Nick to carry on.

Nick thought for a moment, "Travel" He suggested. He couldn't very well explain the Hunt to the Carrow sisters, but it basically came down to a lot of traveling.

Flora nodded thoughtfully, "I hope I can travel" Her sister gave her a pointed look, but Flora only scoffed. "Did you want to stay here and wait around to see if Father can arrange a marriage to Crabbe or Goyle," Hestia winced, "No I thought not and neither do I. Father will approve of you putting off marriage to go to school and become a healer. If you do exceptionally well he may even let you arrange your own marriage to help your career. I have not such ambitious, father will want me married the weekend after he graduated."

"Where I come from, if you don't want to get married you don't" Nick said. Which was hands down the longest English sentence he had said to a stranger to date.

"Where do you come from?" Flora asked.

"Canada" Nick said automatically.

"Why the accent? I thought Canadians speak English?" Hestia asked.

"French Canadian?" Flora offered.

Nick managed to keep his face blank thought he was dieing of laughter inside. Luckily a distraction in the form of Luna walking towards the trio stopped Nick from injuring himself as he tried to keep the laugher in.

"Colin Creevey was petrified," Luna said when she reached the group.

"Well hello to you too," Flora said.

"I better go," Nick said. nodded politely to the Carrow sisters and let Luna lead him away. "Professor Flitwick wants us in the common room?" Nick asked Luna as they walked towards the Ravenclaw corridors.

When they got to the common room, They found a place on the floor with Eddie, Marcus and Huge. Professor Flitwick came in a short time later and gave a rather unnoteworthy speech on the importance of traveling a group.

For the next two weeks, Nick spent most of his time either with Luna and Ginny, The Carrow sister, or his dorm mates. He helped the Twins pull three more pranks. Two on the Slytherin quidditch team and the on the entire school.

The latter took more planning than they were originally hoping. Lee Jordan ended up volunteering his services as a distraction for the house elves, and Nick had to give a hand to get the Volubilis Potion into the food.

Still, three nights before the Hufflepuff vs Ravenclaw quidditch game Nick sat at dinner watching Luna's hair slowly raise until it, like everyone else hair, was straight on it's end.

The chatter in the room slowly rose several octaves. By the end of the meal the entire school sounded as if they had, had helium. A silent and fuming Professor Mcgonagall grabbed the twins, and to the surprise of everyone present, Nick and Lee. She lead the boys down to Filch's office to serve detention that very instant.

"Recon she'll be any mader if she drinks the pumpkin juice?" Lee asked the group. His voice still several octaves above normal.

Nick shrugged, "Dumbledore looked happy". The eccentric old man looked positively thrilled when his beard turned a shocking purple colour. Snape was less thrilled when his black hair turned a deep green. He was probably less upset than he would have been if his hair had turned a pink as bright as Flitwick's.

Filch hobbled into his office with a bang. "You two with me, you to stay here" Flich hobbled off again with the twins dutifully following after.

Nick looked around the office. The whole thing smelled of mildew and rotting food. There were several boxes marked "Punishment Slips". But one, near the back of the stack was labeled "Confiscated and Highly Dangerous".

Nick grinned and flicked an unlocking spell on the draw.

"Bloody hell are you mad? he'll be back any second," Lee whispered.

"Go listen then," Nick brushed off Lee and when to look through the collection. Mostly there was a lot of nonsense Zonko's products. There was a very beautiful obsidian stone with a collection of unfamiliar runes etched into it, what looked to deep blue and black coral bracelet, and a very small journal. Nick grabbed a couple of Zonko products and gave them to Lee and put the stone, bracelet and journal in his own robe product. He locked the cabinet and moved back to his spot in the office.

"Your nuts," Lee grumbled.

"He's not back" Nick pointed out. Which was true. In fact, after twenty minutes, Nick talked Lee into sitting on the floor and working on their homework. By the time curfew came around, Filch still wasn't back so the pair packed up their things and head to their respective common rooms.

"How was detention?" Eddie asked when Nick arrived back in their dorm room.

Nick shrugged. "He left with the twins and never came back. Lee and I just did homework."

"Could have been worse. At least you didn't have to go into the Forbidden Forest. Bloody terrible place" Marcus shuddered. The other boys nodded in agreement.

Nick said his goodnights and left the three to lament over past detentions. He looked over the rock, but it wasn't any clear what it meant. The bracelet he recognised as a typical gift from a mermaid to a Wizard or Witch. It let the wearer breath underwater. Nick put it on his bed side table and took out the journal. There was no date, but it was labeled as "Prong's" and it detailed someone's efforts to become an animagus. Based on what Nick read, the author was successful.

Nick thumbed through the book a few times. Being an animagus would be really useful, but failure could be really gruesome as Professor was happy to remind her students. Nick thumbed through it one more time before putting it under his pillow. Perhaps after dealing with the voice in the wall, he'd think of becoming an animagus.

The first Quidditch game of the year for Ravenclaw was spectacular. Poor Hufflepuff didn't stand a chance. Nick flew litural circles around the hufflepuff chasers. Grant and Nick scored 90 points before the Ravenclaw seeker go around to catch the snitch and end the game at 240-30.

"I certainly hope the game against Slytherin is that easy" Grant laughed.

"Keep wishing, it'll only get harder from here" the Captain said. He didn't sound terribly worried though.

"Let's go party in the common room, I heard someone convinced the house elves to full stock the event if we won." One of the beaters, started herding the group out of the change rooms.

As the group made their way up towards the common room a voice range though the hall, _"Kill…. Killl. Kill…." _Nick nearly tripped over his own feet.

"Nick?" Grant asked. Nick brusehd him off and head down the hall after the voice. The rest of the team pulled Grant along towards the Ravenclaw common room.

"_Why are you trying to kill?" _Nick asked the walls when

"_Must protect"_

"_From who?" _Nick urged but the voice didn't answer and the sound of slithering faded down into the floor. 

Nick glared at the stone floor trying to think of a way to find the voice again. The thought of the portrait in the parslescrip library came to mind. Nick head off towards the dungeons. He passed the Carrow sisters on his way down and said a brief hello but excused himself as soon as he thought polite.

He climbed into the library and found the portrait seated reading.

"_How would I get around in the walls?" Nick asked. The portrait looked_ _and motioned for Nick to explain himself more clearly, "I keep hearing a voice speaking parseltongue in the walls. It's talking about killing and protecting. I think it has something to do with the petrifications lately."_

"_Andrus?" _The portrait looked up in shock, the book fell to the bottom of the frame, _"Is it possible he's still alive?" _

"_Andrus?" _Nick asked

"_My framillar, he was, or rather is a basilisk. I felt him here to protect the school when I left." _

Nick stared speechlessly at the portrait, _"Who leaves a giant deadly snake as a means of protection?!"_

"_Only a parseltongue can wake him, so he would not attack just anyone. You of anyone should understand the knowledge and power and serpent can hold. Times were volatile when I left, the school was constantly under threat of attack by the muggles, every procation had to be taken." _

"_Well there is no threat now and Andrus is attacking students." _Nick pointed out.

"_Then go tell him to cease and desist. There is a path straight to Andrus's room behind his fireplace. Just put out the fire and touch your wand to the middle brick." _

Nick did as instructed and watched in amazement as the floor of the fireplace sank away into a narrow spiral staircase further into the dungeons. Nick followed the stairs down to a large chamber. The circular room was filled with tiny bones and the long decade remains of a straw nest. Coiled upon itself with it's head staring at the wall opposite Nick, was the largest snake Nick had ever see.

It was probably twice the size of the Desert Worm he's tried to talked to ages ago. Alex had gotten the brilliant idea that the Desert Worm was really a cousin to the basilisk and had dragged Nick out to test it. Turns out, as the name indicates, a Desert Worm is a very large Worm.

"_Andrus?" _Nick called out gently, not wanted to scare the snake and have it turn it's eyes to him.

"_Speaker? How did you get in here?" _The snake sounded ancient. Beneath the deep rumble of the snakes hiss, Nick sensed a cord of surprise.

"_I'm a speaker, but we haven't had the chance to meet yet. I have tried to call out to you before, to ask who you are trying to protect us from." _

Angus let out a long hiss. He was deliberating. _"I was told the muggles are invading yet again. I went to stop it, each time I found that the muggles were not muggles at all."_

"_There are no muggles at the school" _Nick confirmed. _"Wizards and muggles haven't been at war for a very, very long time. Whoever told you otherwise is lying. The cat you petrified is the framillar of the caretaker, and the boy is a first year from the house of Gryffindor." _

"_A student?" _Andrus lifted his head, but did not turn it to face Nick, _"I can feel that you are in fact telling the truth. I do not get that feeling with the other speaker. You are both of the Noble House of Slytherin. Tell me, why does he want me to attack students?"_

Nick thought for a moment, if the snake was really Salazar Slytherin's familiar, he may also hate muggle borns. That being said, the portrait had said that he snake was his, so then the portrait was in fact of Salazar Slytherin. So far the portrait hadn't said anything against muggles nor muggle borns.

"_Do you no know?" _Andrus asked.

"_The one who asked you to attack the others, they do not like muggle borns. They want you rid the school of all of them."_

"_You do not agree"_

"_No." _Nick said firmly _"Muggle borns are a great asset not a threat." _

"_Very well, I will not attack the muggle borns." _

'that was easier than expected' Nick thought to himself. He turned to go, but he caught sight of just how poorly kept Andrus's nest was. _"Would you like me to freshen this place up?" _

"_Please" _the old snake answered excitedly

Nick didn't bother to pull out his wand, he was much more proficient at Parselmagic anyways. He cleaned the walls and did away with the bones and the fossilized straw. He summoned new straw and a few wild goats for a snake

"_Thank you speaker" _

"_My name is Nicholas, it has been a pleasure meeting you Andrus"_

"_Please come again" _

"_I shall" _Nick headed back up to the library and bid Salazar Slytherin and good night. By the time Nick got back to his dorm, everyone else was already asleep.


	5. Chapter 5

**AUTHOR NOTES**

**Author… I'm an author? that's a very strange thought for me. Normally I'm the reader, the customer, the participation in someone else's creation. This project, though, is my project. Obviously it is built upon the giant that is J.K. Rolling creation (bless her soul), but still I wrote the words others are reading (and not because they assigned an essay in a class I had to go to).**

**Anyways, I got a few reviews. I do love reviews, particularly constructive criticism. I love to hear the input of others, it is what helps me improve. I beseech you to tell me what you think should be changed or added or was perfect all on it's own. If you think about it, I am use to having only my essays read by others and my profs normally cover my work in beautiful lines of red so it's more weird for me to not get any feedback than to get only negative feedback. Does that make sense? I certainly hope so. CARRYING ON! **

**Talia-Elizabeth (**** u/4262023/Talia-Elizabeth****) commmented, "How come Nick speaks basically just parseltongue?" Basically I thought it was a good idea at the time. I do realise that is not a very good reason, but it's all I had at the time. As I keep writing I will flesh out Nick's back story more and it will probably go into more detail. **

**Talia-Elizabeth also asked, "Why'd Dumbledore not inform Snape that nick hardly spoke English?" Solid question. Haven't really gotten there yet and probably won't for a while, but just that question in mind as we go along, yeah?**

**May a Chance (**** u/5511303/May-a-Chance**** ) also left a couple of very nice review. Feel free to go check them out and leave one of your own!**

Parseltongue

English

"Talking"

Speaking in the mind

Chapter 5

"What's the book?" Fred tried to grab the book from Nick's grasp, but Nick managed to move it out of reach.

Marcus noticed the book now in front of his face and plucked it from Nick's grasp.

"Why are you two even sitting here. You never do any homework." Eddie motioned for Marcus to pass the book over, but Marcus held it to his chest away from Eddie. "Come on Marcus, hand it over. We all know you're a closet hufflepuff. You can admit you've no idea what the book's about."

"Oi" Marcus exclaimed indignantly. Huge took the opportunity to liberate the book in question.

"Whose Prongs?" Huge asked. The Twins whipped their heads around so quickly the third year Ravenclaws collectively winced at the potential whiplash.

Nick grabbed his book back out of Huge's hands. "I do not know."

"But you have his book" Eddie pointed out.

Nick smiled slyly.

"Come on you can tell us" Marcus whined.

"No talking" The librarian demanded.

Marcus tried to hand a note to Nick asking for an explanation, but Nick ignored him. He was hoping to let the whole thing slide, but when he tried to leave to go to the Ravenclaw common room, the twins dragged him up towards the Gryffindor Common Room.

"I don't have any of my potions things," Nick tried to point out. He knew that the twins were looking for a whole different brand of mischief though.

"You got a book by Pronges-" One twin said.

The other twirled Nick around, "and we go a bit of parchment by Messers: Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and-"

"Prongs" The other concluded stopping Nick mid spin.

"Very fishy," said Fred finally.

"Definitely dodgy," agreed George. "So what you wanna bet there connected."

"You two are plotting," Nick accused.

The twins only grinned.

Nick tried to take a step back, but the twins had him surrounded.

"We know what the bit of parchment does, but what does the journal do?" George asked. "Come on now Itty bitty Nicky, you can tell old George and I"

"You are George," Nick pointed out. The eyes of the twins widened for a split second before narrowing in suspicion. "I'm just good at these things. Not all of us are always plotting."

"So then can we see the book?" The twins asked together. They made very dramatic puppy dog eyes at Nick.

Nick pulled the book in question out of his bag and begrudgingly handed it to the twins. Fred held the book and flipped through the pages as George read over his shoulder. The two looked as if their birthday had come early.

"Brother dear I do believe we have found a new challenge" George grinned like a Cheshire cat.

Nick adamantly shook his head, "Nope, neniu, Non, nein, nincs, nie, no!"

Fred reach over and ruffed Nick's hair, "Don't hurt your self there fledgling"

"Not me, you. Animagus is very hard,"

"No, you don't say" George said sarcastically. He turned to Fred in mock surprise, "You here that, Fredie?"

"To bad Professor Mcgonagall never warned us"

"Once-"

"Twice-"

"Every other sentence"

Nick managed to get his book back from the twins. The two looked very put out. They looked at each other and both seem to be considering something. They turned around and huddled together to discuss it.

Nick was fairly certain they weren't actually discussion anything since he heard things like "And we can grab the old monkey-", "Build a snowman army"- and "-eat the canary, as ma always says."

The twins turned around abruptly. "We've decided to make a deal. You share the book and we'll share the map" George announced.

"Map?"

The twins grinned. Fred pulled out a piece of parchment. George put his wand on the parchment and said, "I solemnly swear I'm up to no good". The parchment slowly revealed a map of Hogwarts.

"Oh" Nick said. He reached out for the parchment, his thoughts brimming with questions and ideas. Fred pulled the map just out of reach. Nick sighed and passed the journal to George. Fred gave Nick the map.

"How about we switch for now. We can switch back when you want to read this or when we need to pull a prank".

Nick nodded absently to the terms and distractedly extended a hand for the twins to shake.

Three hours later, Nick was still comfortably seated on the coils of Andrus, His head resting on the Basilisk head so that when Andrus hissed, Nick felt it on his arms.

"_Why are the pips no on the map?" _Andrus asked.

"_The Marauders must not have know about them. The Chamber isn't here either. I wonder what else they missed." Nick explored the map. _He watched in fascination as Professor Snape stood perfectly still while in his office while the rest of the castle seemed to constantly shuffle_ 'must be brewing' _Nick thought.

"_You could add the forest too" _Andrus suggested. Nick stiffened. _"Does the forest scare you little snake? I would go with you, if you like."_

"_We'd get caught"_

"_Not at night" Andrus pointed out._

"_But curfew…"_

"_It is already well past curfew." _Andrus pointed out patiently. Nick watched Filch prowl the halls. The creepy old caretaker stalked around scaring children and casing after the peeves.

"_I can't start tonight. I need to study how they managed this first, copy what's already here and then we can start adding things. I want to do the Chamber and it's many entrance and exits first though."_

"_As you wish speaker. Now, I need to hunt for dinner, you may come if you like-"_

"_Well it was nice to see you again Andrus, I'll be taking me leave now." _Nick climbed off the snake and quickly made his getaway back up to the Parseltongue library.

_ "How is Andrus?" Salazar Slytherin asked. _

Nick noted the, "_Parseltongue Patronus_" book still sitting on the dusty old chair. _"He's good. He just went out to the forest to hunt for dinner." _Nick pulled his wand out and pointed it at the ground, "Expecto Patronum" he cast. A very faint tinge of blue seeped out of his wand.

_"You are improving." _Salazar noted, _"May I be so bold as to inquire of the memory?"_

_ "Ravenclaw's bet Hufflepuffs in quidditch. I'm on the team." _Nick tried the spell again but it wasn't any stronger. As much as he was thrilled to completely demolish the Hufflepuffs in quidditch, he was forced on the team. One only gets so much joy from being forced into something.

_"Maybe when I finish this project, I'll have my memory." _Slytherin looked curiously at the blank parchment in Nick's hands, _"You wouldn't happen to know if there are any original blueprints of hogwarts?"_

Salazar eye's rolled over Nick. The portrait seemed to be judging and calculating, _"There are…why is it you want them?"_

_ "To make a map"_

_ "I gathered as much, why, beyond the obvious, do you want a map of Hogwarts." _

_ "There are many reasons one could use a map of Hogwarts"_

_ "Many indeed... " _Salazar tapped his fingers on the edge of the frame, making a tapping sound of long nails on wood. _"Very well, Helga's Room of Requirement on the seventh floor would probably have the maps. There were originally in the Planning Room, but Godric turned the room into the Kitchens one night when he was drunk. I've no notion if Helga ever found the maps again, but I am sure that over time they have found their way into Helga's rooms again." _Salazar looked rather happy when talking about the other founders.

Nick thought about asking what had happened the night Salazar left, but it would be rude to do so. Nick simply thanked the founder and took his leave. He cast_ "invisibility" _on himself and head back to his dorms for the night. His mind already concocting plans for his very own map.

The next morning Marcus had to drag Nick down to breakfast and shove him into his seat beside Luna. Nick definitely did not run well on three hours sleep. The Ravenclaw table was abuzz with chatter, a Dueling club had been announced. The first session was with Lockhart in the afternoon.

Nick vaguely listened the critical and thoughtful discussions on the practicality of dueling club, when Cho Chang pointed up to the flock of coming owls. "Did you see that, there's a blue Phoenix with a letter.

Nick motioned for Luna to move over and make room for another person to sit.

The Ice Phoenix circled around Nick twice before settling on the set beside the boy. A swirl of snow surrounded the Phenix. When it settled, there was a light blue skinned boy in it's place. He was dressed in a pale blue robe with snowflakes falling down the material and dark blue cuffs.

"Nick flight?" Nick asked casually.

The boy in blue shrugged. "Weather coming over the Mediterranean was a bit stormy, but other than that it was fine." A plate appeared in front of the boy, and he began filling it with a everything from eggs and toast to tarts and pie. "There was this one muggle plane… that was really my fault though. I wasn't really paying attention you see. Anyways, Mao Jian sends his regards and told me to give this to you. When'd you start learning English anyways?"

The boy took a long look around the Great Hall, "And since when did you start attending school? You really should write more. I feel like I've just missed a great adventure every time I see you."

"Nice to see you too Faer." Nick took the letter from his friend and opened it. There were two letters inside. One to Nick in Parsescript asking about Nick's latest adventures and a second addressed to 'prospective buyers' and written in English.

"Cho, this is about miniature dragons," Nick passed the letter to Cho.

"Thanks, after I read this, can you explain your friend?" Cho asked.

Nick looked around the great hall to notice that a good portion of the student body and most of the professors were looking at himself and Faer.  
>"How rude of me. I'm Faer. I met Nick when we was still a wee babe. His father and I were good friends. I was visiting a mutual friend of ours and was asked to bring Nick his letter on my way over to Norway."<p>

Nick looked up in interest, "Is that where Alex is?"

Faer looked shock, "you haven't heard from him? oh that's right, I was suppose to deliver that before going to China. Here," Faer produced another letter, "My apologies. I forgot that was even in there."

"Are you a…" Eddie trailed off.

"Ice Phoenix. Mao Jian, the mutual friend of ours, he thought me how to create this form when I was younger."

"How old are you?" Huge asked.

Nick looked up, a spark of interest in his eyes.

Faer laughed, "Old, very old."

A bust of flames at the front of the Great Hall caught the attention of most of the student body.

"Fawk" Faer exclaimed happily. The boy vanished in a whirlwind of snow. The Ice phoenix took off into the sky. He circled the fire phoenix and the pair took off into the outdoors.

"What was that all about?" Marcus asked Nick.

Nick looked back up from the letter from Mao Jian, "Faer? I have no idea."

"I like him" Luna declared.

Nick snorted. "You would," Nick muttered under his breath. "Charms class?" Nick asked the other third years Ravenclaws, as he started to pack up his things for class.

"Er...yeah I guess" Marcus said. Slowly the group pack up their things and headed towards their class. "Nick, I am starting to get the feeling there is a whole strange story behind you."

"I'm not that interesting,"

"Sure you aren't" Eddie patted Nicks shoulder, "And I'm really a hippogriff in disguise as a Ravenclaw".

"After the show that blue Phoenix put on…" Huge sent Eddie a calculating look.

"Well, Nick… What is your story?"

"My parents died when I was very young. I grew up traveling with my Uncle. I nearly got myself killed one too many times and got sent here. Not much of a story."

"You say that but a ice Phoenix, which I've never even read about before, showed up at breakfast today with a letter from a mutual friend from china who breeds miniature dragons." Marcus paused in the hall and walked around Nick, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Side note, that's the most've ever heard you speak before."

"I seem to stumble on adventure at every turn," Nick explained.

"You don't say" Marcus said.

The strange Ice Phoenix was largely forgotten by the time lunch finished as students clamoured to go to the Dueling Club.

Nick saw Luna heading to the common room after lunch and latched on to the girl dragging her excitedly to the classroom.

"I have never stunned a student in class before," Luna mentioned airly.

Nick waved the girls concerns away. That was what the club was for, practice. A dueling club was just the sort of thing Nick needed. The informal duel, Nick and Marcus had in DADA after they round up the Pixies had been exhilarating. Dueling was the most practically knowledge Nick could possible get from Hogwarts, in Nicks humble opinion.

"Gather Round, Gather round. Can everybody see me? Can you all hear me?" Professor Lockhart structed up and down the dueling platform. He gave a final dramatic turn when he reached the end. "Excellent."

"Peacock," someone whispered behind Nick. He turned to see the Carrow sisters sneering up at the DADA professor.

Flora Carrow noted Nick's gaze, "I've no idea why Dumbledore let him teach and not professor Flitwick. I'd much rather learn from a dueling champion, even if he is the Ravenclaw head of house"

"He just called Professor Snape his assistant. Did you hear that?" Hestia asked indignantly. Many of the other slytherins looked as if they were silently cursing Lockhart. The man stayed blissfully unaware as always. Nick was convinced Professor Lockhart would only notice how other people viewed him if it were written on his mirror.

The group watched attentively as the two Professors walked several paces from each other. They turned, Snape fired a very well timed Expelerium sending Lockhart on his ass.

Chatter rose up. Nick could hear several Slytherins praising their head of house. Even the Gryffindors on the opposite side of the dueling platform seemed to be laughing.

Nick looked down and saw Luna trying to ever so stealthily leave the dueling room. Nick pulled her back in, "I don't think so favorite firstie, I still need someone to practice with. I'll let you stun me if you stay".

"You'll have to show me how to properly cast the spell,"

"Alright pair up and work on what you just saw" Lockhart instructed.

Nick pulled Luna off to the back of the classroom. "Lets start with Stupefy. Have you done this spell before?" Luna shook her head, "Alright. Marcus went of this one with me last week. Simply say Stupefy very firmly and draw your wand down in a straight line towards your opponent. I'm going to try and block the spell with a Protego." Nick took a few steps back and got ready.

"Stupefy" Luna tried a very faint light appeared but the spell didn't leave her wand. Luna tried again, a bit more firmly a light shot out of her want.

"Protego," Nick flick his wand and a shield appeared. It was thinner and weaker than any Parseltongue shield Nick could produce, but it did stop Luna's spell.

The pair grinned happily at one another and tried again.

After only a few tries, Professor Lockhart called the group back to the stage. Nick's attention shifted to the stage and Luna's stupify throw him to the ground.

"Are you alright?" Luna asked sheepishly. "I've never hit someone before. It was liuder than I expected when you hit the ground."

"I'm fine," Nick said. He pulled Luna back to the stage to stand beside the Carrow sisters.

"I'll bet on Draco" Hestia Carrow poked Nick and Luna and pointed to the dueling platform. Draco Malfoy and HArry Potter were facing each other.

"I'll bet Potter," Nick countered

Flora looked at Nick strangely, "Why? Draco's a pureblood, surely Mr. Malfoy would have thought the boy how to duel. What would Muggles have thought Potter?"

"One, Muggles can be very dangerous in a duel. Two, I just wanted to wanted to bet against you," Nick explained.

"I don't think that's how betting works," Luna pointed out.

The Carrow sisters nodded, "I never thought I'd agree with you Loony Lovegood, but you're quite right. Nickolas you are a terrible gamblor."

"We shall see…" Nick turned back to the stage just in time to see Potter go fly across the stage.

Flora giggled, "See, I told you Draco would know what he's doing."

Potter jumped back to his feet and sent a spell at Draco. The boy had time to dodge or defend against the spell but he just watch it it him.

Draco got back up to his feet and summoned a snake.

"House pride?" Nick asked Flora.

"Probably just showing off a spell he just learned. The snake won't stop Potter from retaliating.

Lockhart stepped forward to vanish the snake, but just set it flying into the air. The snake hit the ground and let out a very angry hiss.

"_Good for nothing Wizards," _ The snake hissed angrily. It start slithering towards the gryffindors. Nick flinched as the snake got near enough to attack, but Potter stepped forwards,

"_Leave him alone" _ Harry Potter demanded.

Nick looked at the boy in wonder. Harry Potter, Saviour of the Wizarding world, Golden boy was a Parselmouth? Nick looked at the scrawny second year gryffindor in surprise. There was a house specifically designed around snakes. How did any self respecting Parseltongue end up in gryffindor?

Nick conveniently ignored that he, himself was sorted into Ravenclaw.

"_Leave him alone"_ Potter demanded again. This time the snake turned to the boy but before the snake could say anything, Professor Snape sent a Burning Hex and the Snake burnt into ash.

Nick took a reflective step back.

The students surrounding the platform, from all houses, regarded Harry Potter with distrust. Nick moved to intercept Harry Potter as his friends shuffled him out of the room, but when he caught sight of the scorn the boy was getting for being a parselmouth, he opted stay standing beside Luna.

"You and Harry Potter should listen to the walls together," Luns said.

Nick turned to the first year. Her air of innocence and naivety hovered around her, hiding her brilliance. "Remind me to talk to you about that later. For now, shall we practice."

Nick and Luna went to the back of the room and went back to to stunning and shielding. The rest of the students did as well, but with much more sedated excitement than before.

"Wanna trade partners for a bit," An exhausted Huge asked. NIck looked over to see a panting, grinning Marcus. Nick caught a glint of something unnerving in the boy's eyes. "I might never wake up if he stuns me again."

Nick took pity on his roommate and motioned for Huge to pair of with Luna, "Be nice to the firstis,"

"Thank you, I'll be a real gentleman. Really thank you"

Nick started to walked over to Marcus, but had to dive out of the way of a stunner. He throw up a Protago just in time for the second stunner to bounce off harmlessly. "Stupify" Nick shouted. Any formal dueling practices went straight out the window as the two Ravenclaws moved around the room, diving, sprinting and rolling their way across the floor. "Protago, Stupefy, Stupefy, Expelliarmus, Protago". Nick leapt up to the dueling stage and dove over to the other side to duck a "Petrificus Totalus".

"Mr. Broda, Mr. Belby. Enough!" Professor Snape stepped between the boys and blocked the oncoming spells. Nick and Marcus paled drastically. "Larrikins, the both of you. Move to the back of the classroom and practice properly."

The two quickly moved back over to Luna and Huge. The Carrow sisters were there offering pointers to the pair.

"Hanging around Slimy Slytherins now are you?" The twins wandered over to the group.

"Fred, George Weasley, meet Flora and Hestia Carrow, Luna Lovegood, Marcus Belby and Hugo Mattingley. I've no notion where Eddie is-"

"Library" Huge supplied

"But Marcus, Huge and Eddie are my roommates."

"It's pleasure to meet you bookworms… Slimy snakes. Mind if we borrow Nick-" Fred grabbed Nick's right arms.

George grabbed Nick's left arm, "for a moment? Great, carry on then". The twins frogmarched Nick out of the dueling room and down the halls to empty classroom.

"We read the book and we're going to start finding our animal. Thought you might want to join in the adventure." Fred explained.

George gave Nick a hard shove down on the shoulder and forced Nick to sit. "We start with breathing.

Nick wasn't really sure why the twins had really wanted him there, but he had intended to become an animagus anyways after reading the book. Now was a good a time to start as any.

The three boys sat and tried to meditate until curfew, but all they got out of it was a sore bottoms. "Maybe we missed something George-"

"We should read more into it Fred-" The twins both looked at Nick.

There it was, the reason he was 'invited' to join the twins in their quest. He got to do all the research. "Yes, alright. This weekend, After I've brewed my potions on Saturday, we can go over what I will have found and try again.

Nick hissed unpleasant things about the twins the entire walk about to the Ravenclaw dormitory.

"The beginning of eternity, The end of time and space, The beginning of every end, And the end of every place."

"The letter e" Nick answered the Ravenclaw door knocker's riddle and entered the common room.

"Where have you been?" Eddie demanded, "Nearly Headless Nick and Justin Finch-Fletchley have both been petrified. Professor Flitwick has the Prefects taking attendance and checking bed. You better go tell Penelope Clearwater you're here before she starts organizing a search party."


	6. Chapter 6

Parseltongue

English

"Talking"

Speaking in the mind to others

'speaking in the mind to self'/ 'sarcasm'

"Nick, herbology is this way" Eddie grabbed Nick's arm and pulled him down the corridor towards the greenhouse.

Nick suppressed thoughts of stunning Eddie in Parseltongue and making and brake for it. It was more difficult that it really should have been, since Eddie insisted on trying to cut of the circulation in Nicks arm and chatter about senseless dribble as they walked.

"Seriously , you've been trying to ditch people all day. What's your problem. Did you not hear about the petrification cases? Potter sent some monster to try and kill them, he might get you too."

"I still need to study."

"Nonsense, You're a closet Slytherin, you don't need to study as much as the real Ravenclaws." Marcus grinned cheekily.

"Plus we're going to the library after dinner to study, same as every wednesday," Eddie pointed out.

Nick shook his head.

"Right, you go off with the twins to chose chaos."

"Oh look it's the second years," Marcus pointed to the group of students coming out of the herbology classroom. Among them was Potter, the Weasley boy, and Bushy.

Nick hung back as the other Ravenclaw students gave the Gryffindor's a wide berth on their way to the greenhouse. Harry Potter walk with his head down, with quick strides on his way to the castle. As he passed, Nick whispered, "We need to talk". The boy's head whipped up and he looked in shock he looked like he might stop to talk right then, but his friends continued to herd him to the castle.

When he go to the herbology classroom, he found a seat by Cho and sat down, pulling out his equipment for the day. "You shouldn't get too near him, he's dangerous you know" Cho pointed out matter of factly. She must have noticed how close Nick walked to Potter.

Nick only shrugged. Defending the second year gryffindor would look suspicious at this point, and he didn't know that it wasn't the Harry Potter Kid. The attacks were rather obvious, not really a slytherin quality. It could be a hufflepuff or Ravenclaw, though the success rate of the attacks made Nick think that Ravenclaw was probably out of the question or that the attacker wasn't really trying to kill. It could be an experiment of some sort. Perhaps who ever was controlling the Basilic wanted data more than they wanted deaths.

Nick sat at his Herbology desk drumming his fingers. It didn't make sense that the attacks were still happening considering that the basilic said he wouldn't attack anymore. Something must have changed. Perhaps whoever organized the attacks had found a way to force the ballistic into action.

"Nick? Hey Nick" Cho called attention to Professor Sprout at the front of the greenhouse. She was pointing out the qualities of a freshly reported mandrake and a portion that could and in fact would be made out of manicured mandrakes to cure petrification. Nick pulled out a quill and started taking notes.

After class finished he was dragged back to the Ravenclaw common room for an hour of studying before dinner.

He found a seat beside Luna and Eddie and pulled out his Charms work.

"Eddie," Nick looked up from his work, "Are the victims still petrified?"

Eddie didn't bother to look up from his work, "Yeah. Professor Sprout needs to finished making the cure, it should be done before the end of school though."

"Those who have been petrified will have to take remedial summer classes to catch up for lost time," Marcus pointed out.

Nick nodded and pulled out a bit of parchment. He know there were parseltongue spells that undid the petrification of a basilisk stare, but they weren't really common knowledge. Still if any one did, it was Mao Jian, Nick's trusty Chinese contact.

"Is that a letter you need to post?" Luna pointed to the folded parchment in front of Nick, "I've a letter I need to send. Perhaps we could go together." Luna didn't wait for a reply, she just started packing her things and walking out the room.

Nick had to hustle to pack his things a catch up.

"Why'd she ask if she wasn't going to wait for a response?" Eddie asked as Nick shoved the last of his things in his bag. Nick only shrugged. There was no sense trying to understand Luna.

Nick let Luna lead the way to the owlery. Twice he could have sworn they were going in the wrong direction, but they made it there faster than Nick normally did, so he figured Luna know some short cut that Nickl had never seen on the Marauder's map.

"You're friends are here" Luna pointed out. Nick looked up and found Fawk and Faer both perched in the rafters.

The two phenix's waved a wing at the students and went back to chatting.

"I wonder what phoenix's talk about" Luna said airly.

Nick shrugged, "Faer talks about the weather mostly, when we talk. He always seems to know where the next major storm is. He says that storms have been getting more severe and more frequent lately. He worries I think."

Luna nodded solemnly, "There are a lot less Nature Guards in the forest. I went looking for one another other day, and I couldn't find a single one."

"Nature Guards?" Nick asked.

Luna smiled and twisted the turnip in her hair thoughtfully, "They don't do much really, just wander the forest. They die if the forest is ill though."

"Ahh, Nick smiled _forest spirits_ yes, I've seen those before. I saw a whole forest worth of _forest spirit_ burrow into the ground right before a forest fire. In the months after, not a single one came back up."

Luna nodded, "It is worrisome"

"Very" Nick agreed.

"Perhaps we should go to the dungeons, speaking of worrisome and all," Luna suggested. Nick looked a little a taken aback. "Have you been listening to the walls lately?"

"Right, yes, We should go to the dungeons then." Nick agreed.

Again he let Luna lead the way down to the dungeons. Nick recognized ever passage Luna lead him through, but still made it to the portrait of Salazar Slytherin before Nick would at a far more leisurely pace than Nick walked at.

"Why is she here?"

_"Good to see you too professor"_ Nick hissed. He motioned for Luna to make herself at home. "I'm afraid all the books are in parsescript. I'll be back soon though."

"That's alright Nicholas, I will be interesting to look around. Perhaps I can talk to Professor Slytherin. Does he only speak parseltongue?"

Nick shrugged. He honestly, have no idea. With a hiss and a flick of his wrist, the fire was put out and the stairs down to the chamber appeared. Nick hesitated to descend, there was a chance that the basilic would attack him.

'gryffindor courage' Nick reminded himself, it was a quality worth emulating, even if it did often lead to uncomfortable situations.

Andrus was curled up in his regular coil, not sleeping so much as resting his eyes.

_"Andrus , I heard you were attacking students again."_ Nick announced. It probably would have been more polite to start the conversation with pleasantries, but at this point Nick couldn't be bothered.

Andrus head raised, but his eyes stared glued on the wall opposite Nick._ "I'm afraid the one who commands me is the heir of slytherin. I am bound to obey."_

_"Wait are you saying old moldy-voldy is in the school?" _

Andrus shook his head,_ "I do not know of any 'moldy voldy's but I know my master's name is Tom Marvolo Riddle. I am bound to obey him." _

_"Do you know of any way to break the bond?"_ Nick asked hopefully.

Andrus slumped back into his coil, _"I do not"_

Nick stood for a moment and thought. He couldn't think of any immediate solutions but Mao Jian, Faer or Alex might know a say if Professor Slytherin did not._ "I'll figure something out over the christmas holidays and get back to you. I'm sure there is a way."_

_"If there is not..."_ Andrus started.

_"No"_ Nick cut off quickly, _"There must be a way. I only need to find it. I wouldn't have any needless sacrifices. We aren't boneheaded gryffindors you know"_. If Andrus thought his death was going to stop the attacks on students, Nick would just have to prove him wrong.

Andrus chuckled, _"Violet Gaunt would be so wounded if she heard you."_

_"Violet?"_

_"She was a descendant of both Salazar and Godric. Born many years after the founders passed away. She was a brilliant girl, courages and cunning. She was a force to be reckoned with. Chaos seemed to fall her around incessantly."_

Nick grinned, _"To bad she's too old for me and clearly related. She sounds like my kind of women."_

Andrus hummed thoughtfully,_ "She sacrificed herself in the end. To protect Hogwarts and end the first of the goblin wars."_

_"but.." _Nick looked at the coils of Andrus in surprise. What self-respecting slytherin sacrifices their own life. There is always another way.

Andrus didn't say anything. The rise and the fall of his coils, made Nick think perhaps the old snake had fallen asleep again. It was better perhaps to end the conversation here. Nick would rather think only the foolish, stupid, gryffindors would sacrifice themselves. It meant that Nick would never have too.

Generation after generation of Nick's line had sacrificed themselves to the hunt. His own parents had nobelly died at the claws of some rawr beast in an effort to secure some accent scroll to help find answers. NIck didn't want to go like that. Sure he wanted to help, but he wanted to die at a ripe old age of something trivial like Dragon Pokes not in an epic burst of fire and bravery.

Nick thought on this on his way back up the steps. He was surprised to see Luna holding up a book for Professor Slyerin to see, the painting was translating the ear text for the first year ravenclaw into English.

Nick relight the fire and took a seat to read about patronuses in the corner, letting Luna enjoy the knowledge gold mind that was the founder and the parselscript books.

"We should head to the Great Hall"

Nick looked up to see Luna peering down at him. "Right dinner, yeah lets go before we're late."

The two said their goodbyes to Salazar and head down for dinner. Several weeks passed by uneventfully, with no more petrifications or crazy pranks by the twins.

In mid November though, Faer delivered a package to Cho Chang.

"Do the post Owls know that the Phenix intend to create a competitive market?" Nick asked.

Faer changed into his more human form and hit Nick upside the head all in one fluid motion.

"Whatch got there?" Marcus pointed at the small silver and blue package.

Cho gently opened it to reveal a small blue egg with silver streaks running around at odd angles.

"Is that a dragon's egg? don't you need a license to own one of those?" Huge asked.

Cho shook her head, "The law is a little fuzzy when it comes to Miniature Dragons, mostly because no one breeds them in Europe. They're very hard to breed."

"Mao definitely an exception to the rule. He could breed any miniature dragon to create any design, but even master dragon breeders have trouble even producing an egg much less controlling the colour." Faer handed Nick a letter and took Nick's plate.

"Hey, that's my food." Nick grabbed his plate back,

Faer plucked the letter out of Nick's hands. "Then this is my letter."

"Fine, you bloody frozen peacock."

"So how do you hatch it?" Marcus indicated towards the egg.

Cho looked around the books and pulled out a small scroll. She unrolled it and slowly the parchment began to fill with dark blue scrawl.

"That single scroll should answer pretty much any question you have about the dragon. Just think of what you want to know and unroll it. If you have nothing in mind or aren't concentrating on Dragon related topics then a simple fun fact will show up." Faer explained.

"Is this Mao's way of trying to get into the Europe market?" Nick asked Faer.

The Ice Phenix shrugged. "The old man only ever talks about inner peace and all that nonsense."

"Don't to medicate for like nine hours a day?" Nick asked.

"Two, one when I wake up one before bed. That's different. Inner peace isn't all there is to life. You miss a lot of life if you send all your time in your head."

"So when will it hatch?" Marcus asked.

Cho looked up from her scowl. "It depend on the climate and how I look after it. I need to keep it could as much as possible, but also near people and animals, dragons don't like to hatch in isolation."

"You could put it by the window at night" The girl sitting beside Cho suggested.

"One of the seventh years might be willing to carve ice runes into a box with you." Huge suggested.

"I could look after it from time to time too." Faer suggested, "Fawks has errands he runs for Professor Dumbledore from time to time."

"Would you mind looking after it in the day, just until I can get a box for it?" Cho asked.

Faer grinned, "Not at all. I'll even sing for it. Maybe cry over it to help it grow." Cho handed the egg to Faer. "I'll bring her back to you tonight at seven. I'll find you, I've got my ways." Faer winked.

"The owl's teach you their secret?" Nick asked innocently.

"Hush you," Faer hit Nick on the arm.

In the wake of Faer's departure, the Weasley twin's swaggered over.

"Time to mediate," Fred announced.

"You mediate?" Huge's eyebrows disappeared into his bangs.

George leaned back and relaxed his shoulder, "Yeah, helps relieve the everyday stress and worry."

"Exam's, christmas, really stressful period of time. We find Mediating really helps soothe the soul"

"You're full of shit" Huge shorted. "Have fun causing mayham, try not to loss Ravenclaw any point." Huge pointed his spoon at Nick.

Nick saluted and let the twins drag him off for another Animagus.

"I read in "The Last Great Transformation" that "An Animagus does not know what his or her animal form will be prior to the transformation." Nick stated, when the three arrived in their usual empty classroom. "That seemed strange to me, because "Back to Nature" stated that you need to mediate to find you form before doing anything else. "Potions Everlasting"

have a recipe at the back that is described as, "used to induce the Animagus transformation" but it doesn't say if it is meant for the first time or for those who have already mastered the art." Nick flopped down onto the floor with a sigh.

"Never fear, Nickie dear. Fred and I read what old Prongs had to say. They used good old mediation. We know it works for him" George pointed out.

"Worth a shot, we think."

"If we mess up…"

The twins hushed him, "None of your 'ifs'. Let's just give it a shot."

The twins took a spot across from Nick sitting back to back. They looked strangely serious as they closed their eyes and relaxed into their minds.

Nick sighed and closed his eyes as well. He wasn't really sure what he should be thinking about. So he just tried to stop all his thoughts. Not let his mind wandered to the Hunt or the new map of hogwarts or who Tom Riddle was. Eventually Nick began to see grass. Feel dirt beneath him. He moved forward and looked around. I He seemed to be in a cane field. Nick looked back at his body. He had dark indigo, almost black scales. Nick flicked his tail back and forth a few times before his mind geared up, he was a Eastern indigo snake. He had one as a pet when he lived in Florida for a few weeks.

Nick found himself slipping from his mind back into reality. The twins were still mediating, so Nick made himself busy working on Transfiguration homework. When the twins finally came around it was nearly curfew.

"Well?" Nick asked.

"Coyote," They both cheered. "There like the animal embodiment of mischief."

They both looked at Nick. Nick smiled, "Eastern indigo snake".

George grinned, "so the rumours are true, you are a slytherin macerating as a ravenclaw."

Nick smiled smugly, "Who trust the word of a slytherin? Now a Ravenclaw, they are respected more than Hufflepuff, and listen to by both slytherins and Gryffindors. Everyone trust a bookworm ravenclaw.

The twins laughed along and dragged Nick along with them towards the stair case.

…...

Before you judge the fact that I gave Nick such an obvious animagus form, I would like to say that I consulted the following website and took the offered quiz twice. Once for Fred/George and once for Nick. I chose the results as the animagus forms.

.info/coyote-spirit-animal/

.info/snake-spirit-animal/


End file.
